Image courtesy of Gizmodo
“The program is a long time coming. Other cities, like Boston, D.C., and Chattanooga (who knew?), have been there first. But New York poses its own unique problems: There’s the simmering culture war between cyclists and pretty much everyone else. There’s the vastly understaffed accident investigation squad, which proved ill-equipped to handle the cases of several cyclists killed over the past year. There’s the infrastructural shortcomings of a densely-populated city where roads are vital economic lifelines—and where the use of those roads by cyclists is often viewed as nothing short of aggressive.
CitiBike, then, represents a massive experiment. It will put thousands of new cyclists on the road. It will introduce New York to cycling as a mode of transportation, rather than the rarefied subculture of Freds, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and David Byrne. For drivers and longtime cyclists alike, this is a watershed moment, fraught with anxiety. At the same time, for all of the hand-wringing and political backtracking it’s incurred, CitiBike represents the culmination of some pretty interesting technologies.” – Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan, Gizmodo
Reported to be the fastest growing form of public transportation, bikesharing is available in hundreds of cities around the world, so it’s fantastic to see New York City join that list after a long wait. While this is one big step forward in terms of city-wide support for collaborative consumption services, NYC has a fair way to go to reconcile its concerns with other services such as p2p accommodation and p2p carsharing.
Read the full story about NYC’s Citibike launch in Gizmodo.
