NYC’s Bike Share Program Just Around the Bend

New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced Monday that the city’s bike share program will officially launch in May, with the first docking stations already beginning to appear around the city, The Wall Street Journal writes.

The first docking stations for Citi Bike, as the program will be known, went up this weekend in Bedford-Stuyvesant—steel and plastic outposts that will hold rows of blue aluminum bicycles.

The city first announced the debut of the program in May 2012, saying residents could expect a June 2012 launch. But the system was delayed by technical glitches in the software supplied by Montreal-based design company. Then following those corrections, Hurricane Sandy caused further delays.

Now that the city seems to be over the last two humps, Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives, a pedestrian and bike advocacy group, said he thinks the biggest challenge at this point is managing all the demand:

"I think you can summon up what New Yorkers feel when the first bikes go in as, 'Finally, it's here,'" said White.

Initially, Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill were due to receive bikes a year after the initial launch date. As that timeline has been drastically altered, it is hoped that the stations will come to the neighborhood much sooner. The current map of stations designates them as "in planning."

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