NYU Bike Share Program Gets in Gear

By BRIAN RIES

Updated 8:48 PM EST, Fri, Nov 7, 2008

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Students at New York University are marching forward on their plans for a Bike-Share, first reported by StreetsBlog back in May. Under the still-in-progress plan, "Bicycles would be kept at two locations – a dorm on East 7th Street and the bike parking lot at Tisch Hall on West 4th Street – and those who want to borrow one would reserve a time on a Web site by entering their NYU ID number." All they have to do then is show up and swipe their card, which magically releases a key to unlock the bike. Then, they've got 3 hours to do as they please (6 hours on weekends). So awesome.

Yo, New York! Can't we get rolling with something like this? Yes, the good news is such a program is on their radar. The New York Times reported back in July that the DOT is sleeping on the idea. According to the article, only 1% of the city's commuter trips are made by bicycle. The city aims to hit 2% by 2015 and 3% by 2020. But last we heard, the city issued a request for expressions of interest, "seeking proposals from companies and other groups interested in implementing a bike-sharing program". Given the recent economic downturn, I can't imagine a Bike Share is high on Bloomberg's list of "to-dos".

But, back at NYU, things are still cranking forward. In today's AM New York article, NYU Bike Share project coordinator Lindsi Seegmiller said, "“Every time someone hears about it they want to sign up, It’s a perfect campus for a bike share because we’re spread out but we’re not too spread out.” They're not sure when it's going to get off the ground however. They've purchased thirty bikes and are working on getting the computer system in place. But given the impending winter, we're guessing it won't be until spring 2009 that NYU starts seeing the bikes around campus. City, here's your call to arms. Get your bikes in gear (heh.) and hook us up with some wheels!