How Bike Share Might Be?

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Lisa Chamberlain: [00:07] So the Forum for Urban Design is hosting a five day bike-share demonstration project. We have four locations, all in lower Manhattan. Bikes are free for 30 minutes and you can pick them up and drop them off at any of the locations. And the idea is to have free, short bike trips available to anyone who wants to use them.

Speaker: [00:30] They have them in Stockholm where I’m from. Yeah, I’ve seen them kind of everywhere, except for here.

Caroline Samponaro: [00:35] A lot of people are wondering, you know, can New York City really handle a bike-share program, it’s too dangerous, not enough people ride a bike, where will all the bikes go. Well, actually, New York City’s perfect for a bike-share system. It’s flat. Things are close together. 72% of car trips are actually five miles or less in the five Boroughs. So, you know, what could be better than incorporating free bikes, public use bikes, into our public transportation system?

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Speaker: [01:07] Free bikes.

Speaker: [01:08] We just love bikes. I don’t know.

Speaker: [01:09] I would definitely try it out. I’m all for bicycles in the city and less traffic.

Speaker: [01:14] I think it’s great. I mean it’s nice to have a couple of locations so you can test it out, go to places. Better than cab.

Speaker: [01:20] The free bikes is a fantastic idea. It’s brilliant.

Speaker: [01:23] Why?

Speaker: [01:24] Because everybody should be riding a bike in Manhattan, you don’t need a car in Manhattan. This is the world’s greatest city for riding a bike.

Speaker: [01:30] It’s a little escape from work during the day.

Speaker: [01:33] We will ride round here and we’re heading Downtown. I’ve been told that I can keep it for about half an hour/an hour, but then again I’m going to return it in like five minutes.

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Speaker: [01:49] I just went to get a pastry and a coffee this morning for breakfast. I was going to go walk the streets of New York and I was at the City Bakery and they asked me if I wanted to try out the free bike for an hour with no obligation. I said, sure, why not? So it’s pretty easy to sign up.

Lisa Chamberlain: [02:09] Bike-share has shown to be very successful in other cities. They’re very easy and convenient. You have to have a lot of pick up and drop off locations. Basically you have to walk up, get on a bike and go to where you need to go.

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Speaker: [02:23] I was in Paris for my semester. They have 20,000 bikes around the city with more than a thousand stations around the city, so people, you know, could just pay a really low fee, for like a euro a week, and then, you know, ride the bike for free for 30 minutes. People hop on bike, it gets you Metro stop or, you know, go on the bus. So I really hope that, you know, New York City could implement such a program in the city, it would be great.

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Caroline Samponaro: [02:57] So the second annual New York bike-share project and free Fridays on Governor’s Island both prove how ready New York City is for a bike-share system.

Lisa Chamberlain: [03:07] So we’re very excited that Janette Sadik-Khan, who is the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation for New York City, she’s supportive of this demonstration project, and it’s under her leadership that this city has recently issued this request for interest to establish a permanent bike-share program.

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