EV Grieve: [Updated] Here is your East Fourth Street Citi Bikes ...

Do you think we'll see drunken woo-hooers careening around the streets of the East Village on these bikes this summer? I do. And I'm scared.

It's a fair question and is cause for some concern, but I don't think so. First of all, they travel in packs, second of all, lost bikes cost $1,200 dollars.

They're going a bit overboard with this. Mainly tourists will use the bikes. We reallt don't need tourists who don't know their way around changing directions at th elast moment. I predict many more car on bike accidents.

What's up with the abandonned scooter and head of lettuce?

Why don't people just buy real bikes? It's the same price if not less.

The last picture I see a scooter, lettuce and a dog taking a dump in the street...I don't get it...

Anonymous. What's to get about a "scooter and a head of lettuce" This is the East Village and there is a wonderful Organic Food Coop on the block. Also scooters are definitely in the spirit of alternative transportation. And you know what, they are sidewalk legal and closer to the sidewalk in the event of a fall.

Anonymous. Anyone can see that the dog is waiting for the O.K. to pee on the bike racks. This is not a pooping dog!

I am so baffled by all the haters. Do you really think bikes at Ave _D_ are going to be used by tourists? So what if they are? Or might they help 30 locals get to/from the train faster and generally do a lot more good than parking four cars?

Re: buying your own bike, I think Bike Snob put it best. To paraphrase: I also own my own toilet but I don't always have it with me and sometimes I find it convenient to use a public one.

I look forward to tourists, drunks, and other squids badly biking en masse. It means pedestrians and drivers are going to finally start having bikes on their minds. I hope it means bikers will have to start obeying traffic laws and generally acting less retarded.

Admit it. This makes NYC a better place.

Yes, I admit it, this makes NYC better for the tourists, drunks, transients, the self-entitled, those who only think about themselves.

The needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few or the one.

hey Anon 7:10 - do you need to provide your personal credit information and leave a money deposit (no puns needed) in a public toilet?

I can see plenty of good use for this for actual NYC residents.

I've seen Capital Bikeshare in action in DC. Sure tourists use it but they don't really take it out all day. The pricing is way too expensive for that and CitiBike has also made the pricing too expensive to take all day. Most of the time in DC, people use it to commute without having to worry about taking their own bike home. It just makes things easier. If you took your own bike somewhere and your plans need to change, well, you might still have to take your bike home. CitiBike is a good way not to worry about lugging a bike all over town in the event your plans change.

This bike is designed to take you from point A to point B and not for personal enjoyment all day. The pricing clearly reflects that.

Spock: "The needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few or the one."

Exactly. Which is why one or two parking spaces for private vehicles are being replaced with spaces for dozens of bikes for public use.

Anon. 9:57 AM, DC isn't NYC, size and populationwise. What works for DC doesn't mean it'll work for NYC and vice versa.

Anon. 9:58 am, by public use, you mean the very few tourists, and self-entitled narcissists transients who are only here for a few moment of time. Live long and prosper, but doubt it with this bike sharing shitshow shoved down by your throats by your Daddy Khanberg.

Spock 9:08, I'm confused. Serious question: It's obvious how tourists and drunks are a concern with this program, but how are transients a factor? How does public bike transportation favor the self-entitled and self-interested, as compared to car- and cab-oriented streets? It seems exactly the opposite to me. What am I missing?

nygrump: touche, but I can't think of any scenarios where people can borrow easily-stolen equipment worth hundreds of dollars without ID and collateral. Can you?

- Anon 7:10

@ Spock

DC and NYC are different but I still think CitiBike will work well here. DC only has just over half a million in population and the city is not too dense. Bike share in DC works because the Metro doesn't stop in as many places. They use it to either bike directly to work or to a Metro stop.

Here, I think you'll see a lot of residents using CitiBike in that same manner except here, there's a lot more density and a lot more people. I can think of a lot of people who would take CitiBike to go crosstown since it takes forever to go crosstown in a car, taxi, or bus. It makes sense for trips where from point A to point B would either 1) take too much time to walk, 2) would require transferring at least once on the subway, and/or 3) have no direct bus route.

Oh and with the DC comparison, at least people in DC are forced to pay for street parking in residential neighborhoods. Why doesn't NYC do that? The percentages of DC residents owning cars is much higher than those in Manhattan.

Spock: so "the needs of many" mean the need for two people who could probably afford to park in a garage who instead use public space maintained at taxpayer expense to park their private vehicle, and "the needs of few" are the thousands of New Yorkers who have already paid for annual memberships to use this new transit system.

Okay, sure.

I ask again: what is it about the mere mention of bikes that causes everyone to lose every ounce of common sense?

Source: http://evgrieve.com/2013/04/here-are-your-east-fourth-street-citi.html

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