wilfried

A quick Google turned up the following:

Bike sharing in Boston gets $3m federal grant - The Boston Globe
Federally Funded Bike Sharing Programs Expand
City, Alta Bicycle Share secure funding for Portland Bike Share system - BikePortland.org
About | Divvy Bikes
Eyes on Milwaukee: Bike Share Launching in 2014 - Urban Milwaukee

And there are more. All of these mention Federal grants, including the biggest bike share systems other than New York, DC, Chicago, and Boston. I dare say most bike share systems, existing and planned, are funded in part by the Federal government; New York is the exception, not the rule. Few cities other than New York have the kind of advertising market in which they could even pretend to attract enough sponsorship to fund the entire program with private money. And even in New York, that goal is proving to be elusive. Yes, there is a role for the Federal government in building and expanding bike share, and yes, bike share is a public good that deserves government support.

And by the way, how many billions does the Federal government spend on just one highway project, which subsidizes the automobile industry, among many others? Where exactly would the auto industry, trucking, etc. etc. be if they had to build, or wait for private entities to build and then charge them to use the roads on which their vehicles could be driven? The auto industry as we know it is a product of government funding and government policy. Yet bike infrastructure is somehow supposed to pay for itself. The few million they spend here and there for bike share, or bike lanes, is a rounding error in Federal transportation spending.

The grants have it.