NYC's Bike Share System

I saw something similar to this in Israel about 5 months ago. My visit was during the first week of the program, so it was still a novelty and all the bikes were still new, clean, and undamaged. I'm curious to know how successful the program has been. Credit cards are used to pay for time on the bikes which allows a record of who used which bike when and where, if any become damaged or stolen.

Is the dorkyness an anti-theft feature?

It's been in Montréal for a bit of time, seems ok, lots of people using them.

In Toronto we've had the BIXI bike system for quite sometime. At all the major corners downtown there are stations where you can rent a bike for the day. A lot cheaper than taking a cab.

We've had this in London for over a year now - seems to work quite well. Only problem is that the bikes are very heavy and large.

The Twin Cities in Minnesota has had this bike system for two whole years now. It is a great success...and our bikes are acid green :)

So what happens if a thief pays for the bike use and never returns it back?

I wonder how it works in the snowy areas. You pay for a year membership and you can't use the bikes for 3-6 of those months?

For everyone who has it in their own cities--awesome!

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/

We have the same in Paris, France.
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. :)

I think this program will have to face some challenges with vandalism and theft but it looks like the city is aware of that. Anyway, I love this idea and really can't wait for more places to implement.

I would NEVER ride a bike in DC. The insane drivers and horrendous traffic makes it a dangerous place for bicycles. I knew some bike messengers in DC. Key word: knew - all of them quit due to fear for their safety.