Starting next summer, a partnership between New York City and Atla Bike Share will set up ten thousand bicycles for public use. Membership cards for the year will be priced lower than a monthly MetroCard, and the first 30 minutes of bike use is free. The video features Atla's successful bike program in Washington, D.C., the largest in the country.
Link -via Gizmodo | Video
It's called "Velib" (contraption of "vélo", French for bicycle, and "Liberty"), and works pretty well. They also have an iPhone app that tells you which is the closest bike station, how many bikes are available there, or how many empty slots there is if you have a bike and need to drop it.
More and more people use it on a daily basis, and even if lots of people had doubts in the beginning, one must say it really has changed the face of the city - in a good way. :)
Richardson - Like Durango mentioned, the bikes would probably be tracked to their membership cards or credit cards and lost bikes would be charged to them. I wonder how possible glitches with the system and unwarranted charges would be fixed though.
Lewen - Hm, good point. I think the major concern would be the extreme days and not the entire winter. It's still possible to bike out when there is snow and ice on the ground, to a point. It seems like the company does store them away for the heavy days though. http://thecityfix.com/blog/bye-bye-bikeshare-see-you-next-spring/