

Bike Share Program Opens in New York City After Long Delay - ck2
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/nyregion/bike-share-program-opens-in-new-york-city-after-long-delay.html?_r=1&&pagewanted=all

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rm999
I had a chance to do five 10-40 minute bike rides yesterday (it was a
beautiful day) using the new citi bikes. Here are my thoughts on the program:

I had to meet some friends in soho, which normally takes about 25 minutes by
subway or 10 minutes by cab - I casually biked there in 12 minutes. It was
great being able to leave my bike a block from where I was meeting my friends
without worrying about locking it, and it was great that I could pick up
another bike several blocks away to go home.

The bikes themselves are clunky and built like tanks, which seems right
because the bikes will be used a lot and are always outside. The bikes ride
slowly, which again seems right for a commuting bike in a crowded urban
setting.

The bike stations are still having some issues that I hope will be ironed out
shortly. Every time I tried to take out a bike the station would abort with a
flashing red light the first three or four times, which was annoying. The
station map was down all of yesterday, so I had to search around a bit for
stations. That said the stations are nearly ubiquitous in downtown manhattan
so it really wasn't a big issue.

Overall I'm really happy with the program and plan on using it a lot.

~~~
michaelochurch
_The bikes ride slowly, which again seems right for a commuting bike in a
crowded urban setting._

I actually prefer biking fast in NYC. The traffic lights are synchronized to
30mph traffic. It's not easy to sustain 30 mph (you need a racing bike or to
be in very good shape) but I try to get up to 20-22 mph to limit my time spent
at lights. Of course, this isn't an option if I need to be presentable and not
sweaty whereever I'm going.

~~~
rayiner
When is there ever 30mph traffic in Manhattan.

~~~
fennecfoxen
Manhattan traffic is mostly bad in peak traffic (weekdays during rush hours,
major holidays when people are trying to leave, etc) on the approaches to
bridges/tunnels and in the downtown/midtown core where said approaches are
interacting with each other. Anywhere else, anywhen else, and it's not so bad;
there's more traffic capacity on the island than there is to get on/off of the
island.

------
kh_hk
[Shameless spam plug, hope it's relevant here]

Just today I have added New York's Citibike to my bike sharing project [1].
Feel free to give it a spin!

    
    
        List of juicy features:
         - Android version
            - Push notifications for stations of interest
            - Distraction free map!
         - HTML version [2]
         - Hacky goodie: realtime world map [3]
    

[1]: CityBikes - <http://citybik.es>

[2]: <http://api.citybik.es/citibikenyc.html>

[3]: <http://citybik.es/realtime/#citibikenyc>

~~~
mapleoin
That looks pretty awesome. How do you get your data? Do all those bike sharing
services have real-time public APIs that you connect to?

~~~
kh_hk
Some have (for instance NYC, kudos to them!), other services do not have
anything, and data has to be scraped from their website. Most of the time it's
a pain in the ass that involves many different dodgy tricks.

I have a python library available at <http://github.com/eskerda/pybikes> that
unifies all the data from different sources into the same model.

~~~
mapleoin
Awesome! Thanks for making that opensource!

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kh_hk
I wonder what will be their position on visualization, statistics and user
contributed projects reusing their data.

Their data feed is available [1], but in the terms of use [2], page 1, point 4
it says:

    
    
        4. Proprietary Rights in Website Content; Limited License to Access and 
           Use Website.
    
        All content that is on the Website or that is available through the 
        Website or any of the Affiliated Websites, including all designs, 
        text, graphics, pictures, video, information, applications, software, 
        music, sound, and other files and their selection and arrangement 
        (collectively, "Website Content"), is the exclusive proprietary 
        property of Alta and its Related Parties, with all rights reserved by 
        Alta and its Related Parties. [...]
    

[1]: <https://citibikenyc.com/stations/json>

[2]: <https://citibikenyc.com/assets/pdf/terms-of-use.pdf>

~~~
peatmoss
As a techie turned urban planner (starting a PhD in the fall!) I am constantly
amazed by the level of interest in urban planning issues that the tech
community has. Within the ranks of practicing planners, I feel there is the
oldish guard, who maybe groks a little GIS, but otherwise doesn't understand
the democratic potential of data and information systems.

Then there is the new insurgency of people who are "wizards" who come to the
field with a high level of sophistication about coding, visualization, and
analytics. To some of the older guard, these people are intimidating, because
the new guard believes intuitively in open access to data through useful APIs,
and repeatable analyses that consume the same data that everyone else gets.

Contrast that with the clickety-click Excel/ESRI paradigm that we're waking up
from. Data is "public" but not accessible. Analyses are performed by an expert
who you simply have to trust that they did things right, because all you have
is a finished map.

I love the new direction that's coming in planning. In my city, we have a
happy confluence of relatively sophisticated planners, a big tech scene, a
lots of ped/bike/transit advocates, but there is still a gulf between what The
People want in terms of data services, and what the various transit, city, MPO
agencies have capacity to provide.

This pre-coffee ramble is a long winded way of saying, "keep fighting the good
fight, and doing cool and interesting stuff with urban data."

~~~
toomuchtodo
How does one move into urban planning from being a techie?

I ask only because I want to solve social issues with tech.

~~~
peatmoss
I did a masters degree. It was strange going back to school after being out in
the working world for a number of years.

------
ams6110
Sounds like this is a bike rental program, not really a sharing program. My
town (naively) tried a free bike sharing program years ago. They bought about
a hundred bright yellow bicycles and set up racks around town. The idea was
you go to a rack, take a bike, ride it to the rack nearest your destination,
and leave it there. Of course within weeks all the bikes were either
vandalized beyond repair or stolen.

~~~
jzwinck
The same system NYC just deployed has been in use in Montreal and London for
years. You have to use a credit card or similar to get a bike, so there's some
disincentive to mess about (they will charge your card if you steal the bike).
That said, in the first few months after London got theirs, several of the
kiosks were vandalized or stolen. That problem seems to have subsided (maybe
the fools figured out there was no real money in it). But cycle theft in NYC
is more rampant than in London, so we'll see how it goes. My fingers are
crossed, because I've used the sibling systems and they're great.

------
nissimk
I just took one out and back. The bike was good, but it whistled a little bit
in the rain. The three speeds are great. I did have trouble docking the bike
on my way back though and I had to go to a different station. I called the
number but it was busy so I sent them an email.

This is still the best thing to happen to NYC in a while.

------
nissimk
I'm pretty pumped up about this. I brought my helmet with to the city today
and I have my key. I'm going to ride to my appointment at lunchtime. This just
made those fold up bikes that people bring on the railroad obsolete.

~~~
zalew
you have obligatory helmets in ny?

~~~
ck2
I don't think they are mandatory in nyc but it's dangerous for even
experienced bikers, so good for them to be smart about it.

I mean you don't really survive even the first impact and sometimes when you
think you do, an hour later you don't:
<http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/18/brain.injury/> (aka "talk and die")

~~~
zalew
for the city bike helmets are snake oil, especially on those town bikes where
you don't flip. it's almost like wearing a helmet to walk your dog. unless you
wear a downhill one, then grab the full armor too and pick up a fight with
drivers.

in other words: the kinds of injuries an average helmet from the market would
protect in some low margin of cases - probably won't happen. in the ones you
fear the most - won't help you anyway.

~~~
Cthulhu_
I've been cycling almost daily for all of my life and only once had an
accident where I hit my head, back when I was 6.

Disclaimer: I live in the Netherlands, bikes are everywhere.

The main difference is that here, you have experienced cyclists (you learn to
walk, then you learn to ride a bicycle), dedicated bicycle lanes, and car
drivers that know there's cyclists around and look out for them.

As for helmets or not, it's very much a factor of speed, risk of accidents,
and the nature of the accident. Hit your head at a high enough speed (iirc,
anywhere above 30 KM/h) and you'll get a concussion, even with a helmet. Maybe
no cranial fracture, but still. Helmet won't protect you from breaking your
neck or getting run over by a semi either.

tl;dr, I don't wear a helmet, I don't need to, and I live in a country where
cyclists are common. You do see people wearing helmets, but they're usually
children in busy cities or speed cyclists. Sometimes both.

~~~
recursive
FWIW, I had two bike crashes in the span of one week where I hit my head. They
were both in races though. However, I was going more than 30km/h, and I got
zero concussions. I am glad I was wearing them.

~~~
bosie
Did the helmets break?

~~~
recursive
They were both visibly compressed and/or cracked.

------
mike_esspe
If you are in the city without bike sharing program, I recommend you to try
folding kick scooter.

They are lightweight, you can carry it everywhere, your speed will be 2-3
times faster, than pedestrians.

Getting a kick scooter literally changed my life :)

~~~
mapleoin
That's pretty cool, especially if you live in a city which doesn't have cobble
stone everywhere. I don't :(

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Thrymr
13,768 miles in 6050 trips by 5pm yesterday:
[https://citibikenyc.com/blog/2013/05/27/citi-bike-day-one-
re...](https://citibikenyc.com/blog/2013/05/27/citi-bike-day-one-recap)

------
stcredzero
Whoever did the JavaScript for the photo: you broke vertical page scroll
gestures. Also, horizontal swipe on the photo changes the photo, but then we
get moved to another article a half second later. Experience broken on the
iPad.

------
digitalengineer
Nice. Now all NY needs is some bike lanes and your rush hour will look like
the Dutch: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M>

~~~
potatolicious
We do have bike lanes. A lot of them in fact - though some of them are still
pretty scary. I rode a Citibike up 6th Ave in the bike lane in the middle of
the afternoon yesterday and it was a little hair-raising.

One of the _very_ cool things about this program is that all the bikes are
equipped with GPSes, and combined with the data from the docking stations
themselves, there's a stated intent to use this data to determine where more
bike lanes and bike lane improvements will go in.

~~~
Cthulhu_
Don't worry, bike lanes in the Netherlands can be scary too, ;). Especially if
you're a tourist and compete with natives that will go faster. Perhaps even
moreso on a wintry day when it's slippery.

~~~
potatolicious
Ah, it's not the bikes in this case, but rather that you're riding in a
painted lane on a road occupied by a sea of extremely aggressive cab drivers
;)

Some roads have protected bike lanes where you're separated by traffic via a
concrete divider, potted plants, or parking spaces, and those definitely feel
a lot less scary.

------
chsonnu
Interesting visualization of Boston's bike sharing program:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMBXdKj4iDQ>

------
EricButler
There's an organization working to start a bike share program in Seattle too!
<http://pugetsoundbikeshare.org/>

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jaibot
WIth DC and NYC both implementing similar programs, I can now dream of a day
when the entire Acela corridor has a federated bikeshare system.

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Apreche
It started yesterday.

~~~
ck2
Ah I missed the date.

Sadly it seems a bike was stolen in the first hour it was live too.

~~~
brnstz
Someone stole a bike before it was initially locked into the rack, which is
pretty much a one-time event.

Not to mention the bikes have GPS and can be tracked down.

[http://www.businessinsider.com/first-citi-bike-has-been-
stol...](http://www.businessinsider.com/first-citi-bike-has-been-
stolen-2013-5)

~~~
stcredzero
I take it the citi bike program has taken steps to ensure there is no market
for citi bikes. (Like _never_ selling them.)

