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Has Bike Share Already Become Mainstream?

While this week’s Citi Bike launch has received a great deal of the attention both on the streets and in the headlines, it seems bike sharing in New York may have already entered the mainstream.

Take for example today’s lack of reportage from New York City’s tabloids, which have covered every imaginable complaint about the system. Are their editors searching for new angles from which to bash Citi Bike, or could it be that they’ve come to accept the facts: that Citi Bike has been open for less than a week and has more than 21,000 members, its bikes are being used more frequently than Boston or Washington’s bikes were during their earliest days, and nearly three-quarters of New Yorkers are in favor of bike sharing.

Although it may be a bit early to say Citi Bike is as New York as a car-free Times Square, it’s only a matter of time until the novelty wears off. In places where it’s been up and running for a while, bike sharing is just as much a part of the public transportation network as buses and trains. In fact, the fanfare about bike share’s arrival in New York has been met with a scoff in cities like Boston, Washington and Minneapolis, whose systems are practically identical to Citi Bike. Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times said it best:

Even as New Yorkers are discovering bike share, which began this week, other trailblazing cities seem to be looking on with a bit of exasperation.

They are coming to terms with a well-worn truth: Nothing matters until it happens in New York. (At least in the eyes of New Yorkers.)

 

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