Or why, regardless of what the critics think, bikeshare becomes indivisible with what a city thinks of itself.
Evidence: New York’s CityBike.
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From, of course, the New York Times:
… even as the bike-sharing stations remain a source of dismay to some residents, they have served to illustrate a well-worn maxim of urban planning: If you build something, New Yorkers will find a way to lean on it. …
Despite some unpleasantness — including the dirt-specked water that tends to pool in the corridors between curbs and stations, even well after a downpour — the Bloomberg administration says the hubs have served another unintended purpose: as kindlers of romance.
“I have seen people getting picked up at the Citi Bike stations,” Janette Sadik-Khan, the city’s transportation commissioner, said in an interview.
She offered a brief, breathy sample of overheard flirtations — “Where are you going to? Oh, this is how you pull out the bike” — before stopping herself. …
At a station on Washington Place on Wednesday, Kevin Lee, 20, wedged himself between a New York University building and a bike dock, wrapping his legs around the empty slot. “I’m just waiting for my parents to figure out the route,” said Mr. Lee, whose family was visiting from near Vancouver, British Columbia. “I don’t like to walk.”
Come back someday, Kevin, when we too will have bikeshare.
