Originally Posted by
WVU_Engineer
Maybe I just don't get it because I never lived in a big city, but do people that normally wouldn't ride a bike use them? If not isn't it just a program to make things more convenient for bikers then? Are these bikes in some locking rack like the luggage carts at airports? What if you get some place, do your thing go to get a bike to go home and there isn't any?
What about tourists, I could see wanting to rent one for the day or something.
Yes people who don't normally use bikes use these for short hops. Remember NY-kers don't have houses with garages. Space is a premium, and a decent percentage of residents live in walkup apartments. So there are real barriers to bicycle ownership, of if they own, many trips don't warrant pulling the bike down.
Then there's a large number of commuters, for whom bringing their own bike into town isn't practical (or possible). Case in point -- ME. I commute by bike, but don't live or work in the city. I go in from time to time, and used to ride off peak so I could bring my bike. That meant I couldn't go home between 4PM and 7PM. So now, I take any train in, use bike share for a bunch of errands and trips, then back to the train for the ride home.
The average person in New York does tones of short trips a week, maybe to a restaurant, a meeting, shopping, etc. Bikeshare allows a convenient way to fir these into the work day, or the end of the workday, without committing to a bike for the whole day.