With the continuing global success of high-profile cycle sharing schemes news reaches Cyclo that New York City is about to join the swelling ranks and as you might expect from a metropolis that never does anything by halves the Big Apple’s version is going to be on a pretty impressive scale with an initial role out in 2012 of 10,000 bikes. Although you might not think of the city as particularly cycle-friendly (all honking taxis and heavy foot-fall) both the Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and the New York City Department of Transportation have made massive strides in recent years to rectify this with figures showing that commuter cycling has risen by 13% in 2009/10 in line with the addition of 200 miles of bike lane since that date. Impressively the goal is to achieve 1,800 miles by 2030.
The new cycle sharing scheme, which was announced on Tuesday September 13, will include 600 docking stations to accommodate the 10,000 bikes and is being run by Alta Bicycle Share. Alta, based in Oregon, already successfully manages similar schemes across the world in cities including Washington DC, Boston and Melbourne.
