Notes and Views on Commuting by Bicycle.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
NYC Bike-Share Plagued by Questions....and Some NIMBYism
Yesterday the prospect of bike sharing kiosks in NYC graced the pages of the Times, yet the story (New York’s Bike-Share Program Is Plagued by Questions - NYTimes.com) quickly presented neighborhood squawking: following the kiosks' installation, will I have space to park my CAR? And will the sidewalks be squeezed out of existence by bike-share equipment? While I can sympathize with the preservation of sidewalk space in beautiful Village neighborhoods, those New Yorkers who are fretting at the loss of parking space might consider a move to the suburbs, where it's ample. The idea of cities as a solution to the world's crowded, polluted future is premised on mass transit and other efficiencies, including bikes. Anyone lamenting bike-share infrastructure misses the point.
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3 comments:
By definition, if you favour cars as a transport mode, you make it harder for everyone else, and encourage yet more car journeys, so it could be argued (quietly) that that is the point: we need to make it easier for people to cycle and use public transport, and harder to drive, otherwise we'll still be trying to make 3km journeys by car with the last drops of recoverable oil the planet has.
I wonder if any of the naysayers have considered that by encouraging the use of bike share more parking spaces might just open up as people learn to take advantage of more economic alternative. My husband and I used the B-Cycle bike share for 24 hours while visiting downtown Denver this past fall. That was two days of not renting a car and not taking up any parking spaces. The kiosks, BTW, where well away from parking spaces and set in plazas and public spaces. This is just another example of wanting change but not being willing to be a part of change. Heavy sigh.
Good point on freeing parking when biking increases....just need to get to a critical mass. I think the car-psyche is hard to break, unfortunately.
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