Bloomberg News
New York City’s bike-share program, which had been set to roll last month, won’t begin until March.
The program’s operator, Alta Bicycle Share of Portland, Oregon, hasn’t been able to perfect its software, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on his weekly radio address today. Plans for a possible partial rollout were scrapped because there is little point in starting the program in fall or winter, he said.
The first phase scheduled for March will begin with 7,000 bikes at 420 stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Source: Alta Bicycle Share via Bloomberg
“We are just not going to put out the system until it actually works,” Bloomberg said. “The most fascinating thing about this is that all those people that screamed, ‘We don’t want bicycles’ are now screaming, ‘Why aren’t they here?’”
The late July start date came and went with no signs of the 10,000 Citigroup Inc (C).-branded two-wheelers that were to be docked at 600 solar-powered depots. Three years in the making, New York’s bike share will join similar programs in more than 200 cities from Boston to Barcelona.
The first phase scheduled for March will begin with 7,000 bikes at 420 stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. It will become the biggest in the U.S. once the rollout is complete.
Private companies, not taxpayers, are behind the funding for the program: Citigroup, the New York-based bank, is contributing $41 million to be the chief sponsor and namesake of the program, and MasterCard Inc. (MA) is behind the $6.5 million payment system. Profits are to be split with the city.
World Class
The delay won’t affect the sponsorship relationships, transportation officials said in a statement.
“New York City demands a world-class bike-share system, and we need to ensure that Citi Bike launches as flawlessly as New Yorkers expect on Day One,” Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said in the statement.
Alta operates bike shares in Washington and Boston. An e- mailed request for details on the software delays wasn’t returned, and there was no way to leave a voice message at the number listed on the company’s website.
Rollouts of similar Alta-operated programs in Chicago and Chattanooga, Tennessee, have also been delayed, according to local news reports.
Less Congested
Transportation Alternatives, a New York-based advocacy group for cyclists, pedestrians and mass transit, said it supported the decision.
“While we are eager for Citi Bike to begin, it’s more crucial that this groundbreaking transit system be launched correctly, not quickly,” Paul Steely White, the group’s executive director, said in an e-mailed statement. “In time, the circumstances of Citi Bike’s launch will be all but forgotten and we’ll all be enjoying a city made safer, healthier and less congested.”
Since 2007, New York has added more than 290 miles (467 kilometers) to the now more than 700-mile-long bike-lane system, part of Bloomberg’s efforts to tackle two of the city’s most persistent problems: congested roads and ever-widening waistlines.
To contact the reporter on this story: Esme E. Deprez in New York at edeprez@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman atsmerelman@bloomberg.net