New York Thinks About Bike Sharing

Bike-share programs have existed in Paris, Copenhagen, Vancouver, Barcelona and Milan, but only a few American cities, including Washington, D.C., have tried it.

The experiment last year, the New York Bike-Share Project, was run by a nonprofit group, the Forum for Urban Design. Twenty bicycles were available free, for up to 30 minutes, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Bicycles could be dropped off at a handful of locations in and around Greenwich Village.

"New York is a world-class city for biking, and we are looking to build a world-class bike network," said the city's transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, in a statement. "The number of bike commuters has increased 77 percent since 2000. We now have more than 300 miles of on-street bike lanes, more than 5,000 bike racks, and have distributed more than 15,000 bicycle helmets. Alongside this infrastructure investment, we continue to look for new ways to reach our goal of doubling the number of bicycle commuters."