Mayor Bloomberg has already shown how much his administration can accomplish in just a few years. Since Janette Sadik-Khan's appointment to head the DOT in 2007, the city has striped hundreds of miles of bike lanes, reclaimed acres of street space for pedestrians and improved bus travel for tens of thousands of New Yorkers. "More of the same" is no longer a dirty phrase when it comes to local transportation policy. During the next four years, the mayor needs to accelerate this progress, and introduce a few key innovations to maximize the value New Yorkers get from their new streets.

There is plenty of room to build on the Bloomberg administration's record of support for safer, greener streets. Photosim of 34th Street: Luc Nadal and Marc De Decker, ITDP.

Well, the release of DOT's Street Design Manual back in July was an especially auspicious development. This groundbreaking playbook contains templates that can transform streets in neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs. The manual is an engineering document, but it also makes sense as an outreach tool. Community groups concerned about street safety could use the manual as a menu, requesting traffic calming solutions for their neighborhood from DOT. Liberal use of these new designs, applied through a smart community-based process, could pay huge dividends all over the city.

For a fraction of the cost of subway line construction, buses could move millions, if the mayor throws his weight behind BRT.

One sensible way for the NYPD to roll out this approach to traffic enforcement would be to start in areas frequented by children and seniors. Seniors make up 12 percent of New York's population, yet account for 39 percent of pedestrian fatalities. And according to the Department of Health, auto traffic is the leading cause of injury-related death in children ages 1-14. DOT's Safe Routes to School and Safe Routes for Seniors programs have spawned imitators around the country, but our city is no longer the national leader. Other cities are now far ahead of New York when it comes to implementing these street safety programs. Combined with police enforcement, short-term and inexpensive improvements such as leading pedestrian intervals, reductions in signalized crossing speeds, and a citywide slower speed limit in school zones would prioritize pedestrians, save the lives of children and seniors, and get New York City back in the forefront of planning streets for safety.

Greater safety helps more New Yorkers feel at ease riding on our streets. As the city's bike network matures, a large-scale public bike-share system is a no brainer. Bike-sharing weaves cycling into the larger transportation network. In Paris, Velib tripled cycling in a few months with 20,000 bikes spread over 1,400 stations. Montrealers took more than a million rides on Bixi in fewer than six months, and similar gains have been repeated around the globe. The same explosive growth would happen in New York overnight, if Mayor Bloomberg backed bike-share in a big way. Seventy-four percent of trips here are five miles or less, meaning they're very bikeable and easily converted to bike-share trips. If he builds it, they will come.

The same is true of new and better bike facilities. Since the city installed the Ninth Avenue cycle track, biking on the West Side has gotten safer, and so has walking. In Brooklyn, the Kent Avenue protected path is having an identical effect. Traffic-protected bike lanes on Queens Boulevard, through upper Manhattan, down the Upper West Side, and all along the East Side -- where there is a dearth of safe space for cyclists -- would encourage thousands more New Yorkers to ride.

Mayor Bloomberg is a MetroCard guy, but it's much easier to spot him on the subway than riding the bus. That should change in the next four years. Although 2.4 million people ride New York City Transit buses each weekday, the bus system is the city's most underperforming transportation resource. Improvements like pre-paid boarding and signal priority, which have been installed along Fordham Road in the Bronx, could speed service on bus routes around the city. And a true Bus Rapid Transit network, with dedicated lanes for buses and level boarding for passengers, would add another dimension to our transit system. For a fraction of the cost of subway line construction, buses could move millions, if the mayor throws his weight behind BRT.

Mayor Mike has a lot on his plate in the coming weeks, months and years. But if he wants to keep New York City moving toward a sustainable future and shore up his legacy as the Livable City mayor, then safer streets, robust bike-share and better buses are the fastest way to get there.

In Montreal, theft is "not a major problem" for the bike-share network. Photo: TreeHugger.

Still, there's no mistaking the overwhelming sense of schadenfreude emanating from this new Times story (headline: "French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality"). Francophobes all over America are relishing the tale of Parisian comeuppance.

But bike-sharing is a global phenomenon. So why we do only seem to read alarming stories about the problems in Paris? Part of the reason appears to be that bike-share operators in other cities have few alarms to sound. In Montreal, 5,000 public bikes are available through the Bixi system, launched earlier this year. Responding to the Times story, a Bixi spokesperson told the Montreal Gazette that theft and vandalism don't affect the system very much:

“Our bikes are very robust and Montrealers have a great respect for the Bixi program,” said Michel Philibert, a spokesperson for Stationnement de Montréal, which oversees the bike rental program.

“Montreal is not Paris. The theft of bikes here is not a major challenge.”

The Bixi operators also brought down theft rates thanks to a technical fix: They reinforced segments of the docking stations, and fewer bikes were stolen.

Vélib showed the world what a bike-share network can accomplish, but the appeal of public bicycle systems has never been limited to Paris or France. In the past few years, cities in China, Brazil, and the United States have launched bike-shares of various size. London is looking at a 6,000 bike system, and Dublin recently launched a network with about 500 bikes. Boston may be on the verge of rolling out the first truly robust American bike-share network. Even in Australia, where it's illegal for anyone to ride without a helmet, bike-share is on the way.

Like any good invention, bike-share tech is going to evolve over time. The first telephone looked like a fat brick with a hole in one end, and there was no way to tell if someone else was calling you. So it makes sense that Vélib has some kinks -- it marked a huge step forward for bike-share systems, on a scale no one had ever tried before. Inspired by the Vélib model, cities all over the world are also trying to improve on it.

A reader sends this photo taken on the west side of Union Square this morning. You're looking at a temporary installation of a Bixi bike-share station. Bixi is one of three bike-share providers that have set up short demos this month at DOT's invitation -- the other brands are Eco-Trip and BCycle.

You can't get the full bike-share experience without a whole network of stations, but if you want to see how the check-out mechanism works and get a feel for how these Bixi bikes ride, today's demo will be open until 8 p.m. There are more Bixi and BCycle demos on tap for this week, including sites at Saturday's final Summer Streets installment.

Bixi gobbled up a big slice of the urban bike-share market last week, when London and Boston both announced they would use the Montreal-based operator for their respective systems. If New York follows the lead of those cities and makes a serious commitment to bike-share, you may see thousands of these bikes on the street in the not-too-distant future.

After the jump: Guys in shorts set up the demo.

In Montreal, the Bixi bike-share network is so popular that it's slated to expand ahead of schedule. Photo: Bike-sharing Blog

The Globe reported yesterday that Boston's regional planning agency has awarded a contract to the same company that launched Montreal's Bixi bike-share system earlier this year. Boston planners say the system specs are still getting hashed out along with other contract details. Many questions remain unanswered, but signs are promising so far.

In a report on the Times' Green Inc blog this morning, a spokesperson for Bixi "indicated that the Boston system will initially offer 2,500 bikes at 290 stations in downtown Boston." A system of that size and density would place Boston in the ranks of cities like Barcelona and Paris, where public bikes have become a critical component of the transportation network. Officials hope to expand the Boston system to neighboring Cambridge, Brookline, and Somerville soon after it launches.

It's also worth noting that Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, running for re-election this fall, is not distancing himself from the city's bike-share plan. In fact, he's embracing it. "I think Boston is the perfect venue to roll out a forward-thinking bike share program," he said in a press statement released yesterday. "Boston is a world class city, and over the last two years we have made tremendous strides in turning it into a world class bicycling city."

A big part of Bixi's attraction is that it's solar-powered, requiring no electrical wiring or underground utility work. In addition to Boston, London also announced yesterday that it will use the Bixi system for an ambitious bike-share network: 6,000 bikes at 400 locations.

Stations that can be installed without a jackhammer are probably a prerequisite for bike-share operations in New York, where streetwork can turn into an expensive, bureaucratic tangle. DOT released a request for expressions of interest from potential bike-share operators last fall, and a study published by the Department of City Planning this spring recommended that New York start its network with 10,000 bikes.

The DCP study follows DOT's release last summer of a Request for Expressions of Interest to gauge the potential of a public bike system. City officials characterized the new report as a research document akin to a feasibility study, not an indication that bike-share implementation is imminent.

With New York's streets crammed to capacity at peak hours and subways and buses handling historically high levels of ridership, now is an opportune moment for bike-share, which can be implemented quickly and at modest expense. A network of public bike stations as dense as Paris's Vélib would make existing transit options more attractive and relieve crowding on packed trains and buses. Consider these examples from DCP's report:

Over 14,000 northwest Brooklyn residents (Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Fort Greene, etc) work in northwest Queens (Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside). While the distance between these areas is short, insufficient transit means that 42% of these commuters drive to work each day. In addition, for some households, the introduction of a bike-share program may help them avoid or postpone the purchase of a car, as trips to transit or other short trips could then be made by public bicycle.

A subway commuter living on the Upper East Side and working in lower Manhattan or Midtown currently walks to the Lexington Avenue subway (4/5/6), one of the most congested subway lines in the city. With a bike-share program in place, that commuter might bicycle to an express stop or choose to bypass the 4/5/6 all together and bicycle to 63rd or 59th Streets where transfers are available for the F and N/R/W trains. Similarly a bike-share system would allow a Morrisania or Mott Haven resident working at Columbia-Presbyterian, City College or Columbia University, to bicycle to the D train instead of taking a bus or the crowded 2, 5 or 6 train into Manhattan and turning around to go back uptown into work.

The report proposes a phased roll-out, starting where demand would be most intense and expanding to cover all of Manhattan and significant portions of the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. The map comes after the jump.

That's Boston Mayor Thomas Menino in the blue track suit. Photo: Boston Globe.

The city has put out a request for proposals to create a bike share program. The proposal envisions a network of 150 stations scattered across the city with 1,500 bicycles available to students, commuters and visitors with the swipe of a card.

Officials eventually hope to expand the network to 600 stations in the greater metropolitan area with 6,000 bikes.

Talk about a turnaround. Boston streets didn't even have any bike lanes until last year. But Mayor Thomas Menino has become an avid cyclist himself, and the city's first bicycle coordinator, Nicole Freedman, is not short on ideas. Good thing they're not afraid to succeed. The Boston announcement stands in marked contrast to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's plan for a pilot bike-share with -- count 'em -- 50 bikes.

For Boston (population ~ 600,000), a system with 1,500 bikes would merit comparison to the flagship bike-share systems in Europe. Barcelona's Bicing, for instance, launched with 3,000 bikes and about 200 stations for a city with more than twice the residents and a land area about 25 percent bigger than Boston. Bike-share is more ubiquitous in Paris, where Vélib supplies about 20,000 bicycles to a city of just over two million inhabitants. (Matthew Roth at Streetsblog SF has a great post about ideal bike-share specs, and promo site B-Cycle provides a slick way to see the optimum numbers for your hometown.)

Elsewhere in the U.S., Minneapolis plans to launch a 1,000-bike system later this year, and Denver has a 500-bike system in the works. In New York, DOT signaled its interest in launching a bike-share system last year, but nothing so specific as Boston's RFP has been released.

JCDecaux touted Vélib on the cover of its 2007 annual report [PDF].

So is Vélib destined to burn brightly only to flare out after a short time? Hardly. Vélib is here to stay, according to officials and transportation experts familiar with the details of its operations. The BBC's portrayal of a mortal threat, they say, is best understood as a negotiating ploy on the part of JCDecaux. (Note that the JCDecaux representative is the only source quoted in that story.)

"Decaux is using media sensationalism in order to obtain more money from the city of Paris," said Denis Baupin, who as Deputy Mayor for Transportation oversaw the Vélib launch in the summer of 2007.

The basic structure of the Vélib contract works like this. JCDecaux runs the whole system in exchange for the rights to 1,600 outdoor displays, turning its profit from selling that ad space. The city of Paris keeps the revenue from Vélib user fees, so it can claim to provide the service at no taxpayer expense. Now, with the full Paris network of 20,600 bicycles and 1,451 stations completed, penalties for inadequate maintenance are in the process of taking effect. Hence the hue and cry from JCDecaux.

"It's in large part a PR issue," says Luc Nadal of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. Some aspects of the Vélib contract are still in flux, and the sky-is-falling press coverage gives JCDecaux a stronger hand in those negotiations. "Their bargaining position depends on the public's perception."

Not that bicycle abuse is a phantom problem. It exacts a real toll, but much of that cost has been anticipated and accounted for. Last July, the city of Paris agreed to pay JCDecaux 400 euros for every bike stolen in excess of four percent of the total fleet each year. Given the enormous popularity of Vélib -- users have taken 42 million rides since its debut -- the cost of those payments is minimal. Using the BBC's figure of 7,800 missing bikes, the pricetag for the city comes to less than 2 million euros annually, out of 20 million euros in user fees.

"It averages out to about 15 stolen per day, out of 80,000 daily users," says Eric Britton, founder of the Paris-based New Mobility Agenda. Hardly a fatal blow. "It's like skinning a knee."

Not only does the city already pick up a big part of the tab, but JCDecaux reportedly hauls in about 80 million euros per year from its outdoor displays, according to estimates cited by Britton. It's difficult to know the exact figure -- and how much is profit -- because JCDecaux guards the data like a nuclear secret. Even the precise cost of replacing one Vélib bicycle remains unknown to the public. Inquiries we sent to JCDecaux's headquarters in Paris have not been returned.

Public support for Vélib remains unflagging. "Vélib has been totally embraced by Mayor Bertrand Delanoe himself," said Nadal. What politician wouldn't jump at the chance to be identified with a program that enjoys 94 percent satisfaction among constituents?

This is largely a testament to JCDecaux's success in operating the system. According to Baupin's office, however, Vélib maintenance workers report that management has let upkeep slide in order to amplify the perception of vandalism.

JCDecaux's media gamesmanship "is short-sighted," said Baupin, in a statement translated from the French. "One should not lose sight of the remarkable success of this transportation mode due to a slightly underestimated rate of vandalism." 

Then there's the matter of JCDecaux's own self-interest, and whether the rumors and exaggerations will hurt the company's attempts to secure bike-share contracts in other cities. Said Britton: "Why would they run away from a golden goose?"

More than two dozen students braved 32-degree cold this Sunday for the launch of NYU's bike-share program. The ride took them down Second Avenue and over the Manhattan Bridge to see some of Brooklyn's new bike lanes.

The NYU system consists of 30 bikes and two stations -- a dorm at 7th street and a bike parking lot behind Tisch Hall. Lindsi Seegmiller, the student who coordinated much of the program, says she got the bikes almost-new from Hub Station, which used them for free rentals during Summer Streets. To borrow one, students or faculty make a reservation online. Then, at the station, they swipe their NYU ID, opening a cabinet that holds the key to a chain lock attached to the bike they reserved.

In May, Seegmiller told Streetsblog that she hopes the program will expand and get the University, which runs its own bus service, to think more about biking.

Count up-and-coming livable streets advocates like Seegmiller as one reason to be thankful this year. What's on your "I'm thankful for/I'd be more thankful if" list? Enjoy the holiday, we'll see you Monday.

The Forum for Urban Design announced the winner of its Red Hook bicycle plan competition Monday night, awarding top honors to Brooklyn native Jonathan Rule. The competition sought out ideas to make transit-poor Red Hook the city's most bikeable neighborhood, asking entrants to lay out bike routes and design a bike parking "loft" for the Smith-9th Street subway station.

Rule's winning entry includes more than a dozen bike rental "nodes" sponsored by local businesses -- a proposal that could be described as a neighborhood bike-share network. His bike loft design, less attention-grabbing than the massive, F train-encircling wheel proposed by runner-up HOK Sport, gets points for feasibility.

What happens to the winning design now? Forum director Lisa Chamberlain hopes the competition entries rub off on jury members from DOT and City Planning, reports The Architect's Newspaper. Optimistic readers will note that there is extra time to incorporate some of Rule's ideas: The MTA recently pushed back a planned renovation of the Smith-9th Street station from 2010 to 2011.

Please join Janette Sadik-Khan, Transportation Commissioner of New York City, for the world premiere of "Paris: Vélo Liberté" from the critically acclaimed PBS series e²: the economies of being environmentally conscious.

The screening will be immediately followed by a discussion of metropolitan bike sharing programs with:

Denis Baupin, Deputy Mayor, Paris
André Lavallée, Mayor, Arrondissement de Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, Montréal
Janette Sadik-Khan, Transportation Commissioner, New York City

The program begins at at 6:30 this evening on the 40th floor of 7 World Trade Center / 250 Greenwich Street (between Barclay and Vesey). Please RSVP to pyee @ dot . nyc . gov.

If you can't make tonight's showing, "Paris: Vélo Liberté" will debut Thursday night on Channel 13.

As if there's not enough reason to be jittery with anticipation for next week's events, mark this on your calendars:

Please join Janette Sadik-Khan, Transportation Commissioner of New York City, for the world premiere of Paris: Vélo Liberté from the critically acclaimed PBS series e²: the economies of being environmentally conscious.

The screening will be immediately followed by a discussion of metropolitan bike sharing programs with:

Denis Baupin, Deputy Mayor, Paris
André Lavallée, Mayor, Arrondissement de Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, Montréal
Janette Sadik-Khan, Transportation Commissioner, New York City

Paris became one of the world's best bicycling cities practically overnight with the debut of Vélib last year. The system now boasts 20,000 bikes, 1400 stations, and 200,000 subscribers. Montreal is on track to have North America's biggest bike-share system by next April (unless Washington D.C. quickly ramps up its network). And NYCDOT announced this summer that it will explore the feasibility of bringing bike-share to New York.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday on the 40th floor of 250 Greenwich Street (between Barclay and Vesey). RSVP to pyee @ dot . nyc . gov. Full details after the jump.

WHEN
6:30 p.m. - Refreshments
7:15 p.m. - Film screening
8:00 p.m. - Panel discussion

WHERE
The New York Academy of Sciences - Kayden Auditorium
7 World Trade Center / 250 Greenwich St. (bet. Barclay & Vesey Sts.), 40th Floor
Manhattan

RSVP
Limited seating. RSVP is essential for entry. E-mail pyee @ dot . nyc . gov

NOTES
If you can't make the premier & screening, the program debuts November 6 on Channel 13.

Photo: malias/Flickr

Via the Bike-Sharing Blog, this vid shows a modular bike-share station getting set up in what must be record time. It's part of a trial system in Montreal called Bixi (contraction of "bike" and "taxi," rhymes with pixie), which launched last month and is set to ramp up with 2,400 bikes next April. Bike-Sharing Blog's Paul DeMaio explains what sets Bixi apart:

One of the finer aspects of Bixi is how easily its stations can be assembled. There is no demolition of concrete or asphalt for the undergrounding of wires nor the need for an electrical hook-up as Bixi is solar-powered.

Another great thing about this video: The soundtrack combo of 70s-style guitar riffs and Pomp and Circumstance.

What’s the future of New York? What are your hopes, and what needs to happen?

Matt Besser: I want them to get rid of that law that inhibits Critical Mass. It’s a great human event -- especially in a city filled with buildings and concrete.
Amy Poehler: I wish we had those shared-bike programs.
Ian Roberts: Yeah. I’d get all those bikes. And I’d take them to my apartment.
Amy Poehler: I want to be able to teleport to other neighborhoods. I’ve been waiting for that to happen for a while.

And, when asked what the L.A. transplants miss about New York:

Matt Walsh: Walking around everywhere, the food...
Ian Roberts: In L.A., you go straight from your air-conditioned house to your air-conditioned car to your air-conditioned office. Walking around in New York, it's refreshing to know that you're part of humanity.

Next press stop for these guys? How about Streetsblog LA.

Not all that surprising, we suppose, on a news site where the day's top-ranked story is "End of the line for GM's 3800 V-6." And the station's view of cycling gets less strange after the jump.

With the first US bike-share system starting up just a short Amtrak ride away in Washington, DC, you know it wouldn't take long for the Streetfilms crew to make the scene. This week, Elizabeth Press, Clarence Eckerson and Robin Urban Smith took the already-popular SmartBike DC for a spin, and talked to local citizens, advocates and Alice Kelly of the District Department of Transportation, who hints at a possible expansion of the 120 bike fleet:

"Knowing what we know now, of course, we would have launched it bigger. But when we were initially thinking about this we really weren't sure how popular it would be. The rising cost of gas and the ever-increasing green attitude of everybody is now showing us that yes, the city will support a broader program."

A couple of weeks ago, as part of the "Bike Unfriendly Place of the Week" series at Streetsblog Los Angeles, I took a look at the bike planning at the Democratic National Convention. Local press reports were dire, noting that bike racks near the Pepsi Center in Denver would be closed down as part of the Secret Service's security perimeter. However, after thinking it over, I realized I may have had a "can't see the forest for the trees" moment; after all the advocacy group Bikes Belong has arranged for a free bike-share program for each host city during the convention. Instead of focusing on the negative, I could have looked at how the bike-share program will work around the Secret Service's security concerns.

Upon closer review, it appears that bikes will integrate with the convention pretty well. Thanks to the efforts of Bikes Belong and the openness of the DNC, the 1,000 free rental bikes will have plenty of places to safely park throughout Downtown Denver and near the convention center. The bike rack at the transit hub across the street referenced in press reports will be supplemented by a temporary bike shelter holding roughly 250 bikes. In total, there will be eight temporary racks around the city. Two of them will hold 250 bikes and another six will hold 100 bikes each. As for access to Obama's big speech at Invesco Field, details are still being worked out.

Bikes Belong hopes that all participants in the convention take advantage of the free bike sharing program, be they delegates, elected officials or even nominees. Bikes will also be available to any local wishing to try a little two-wheeled travel while the convention is in town. Avery Stonich, Bikes Belong communications director, sums up the feelings of the bike community in Denver: "People will remember that bikes were a part of this year's conventions long after we forget where the security lines were drawn."

In short, it's a bummer the Secret Service is blocking off the Pepsi Center's bike racks, but overall this could be the most bike-friendly political convention ever. That is, if it's not topped by the Republican National Convention next month in Minneapolis, where, according to Stonich, similar efforts are underway to make bikes a part of the event.

Photo: Damien Newton

Today the city will join the ranks of Paris and Barcelona with the launch of the first high-tech public bike-sharing program in the United States, forcing such cities as San Francisco and Chicago to look here to see chic alternative transportation in action in America.

One critical difference between SmartBike and its European counterparts is the size of the network. When Vélib debuted in Paris, it provided 10,000 bikes at 750 locations. The SmartBike planners are taking a gradualist approach, starting off with 120 bikes stationed at 10 sites concentrated near downtown D.C. So far, 150 memberships have been sold, the Post reports.

The fact that D.C. has cleared the hurdles of getting a system up and running is piquing the interest of other cities, according to the outdoor advertising firm that sponsors SmartBike:

"We're getting inquiries from all around the country to see if they can take the same program and implement it in their city," said Steve Ginsburg of Clear Channel Outdoor.

Which American city will go live with public bike-share next? New York recently signaled its interest in a bike-share program, and Portland is actively pursuing one, despite some setbacks. The highly informative Bike-Sharing Blog has put together a Google Maps mashup showing where programs exist, and where ones are in various stages of study and planning. By my count, 14 cities are in the running to follow D.C.

Photo of a SmartBike DC station: afagen/Flickr

Meanwhile, at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, freshmen who pledge to come to school without a car will receive a free $300 mountain bike, along with a helmet and lock.

The college's president, David Joyce, says the project was meant to avoid building a parking garage, but its side effects are beneficial: less pollution, more exercise and savings on gas.

The timing was right, Joyce says: "We were either extremely brilliant or extremely lucky."

High schoolers are getting in on the act as well, with bike and pedestrian projects underway at campuses from East Hanover, NJ to Marin County, CA. Are you listening, Bridgewater-Raritan administrators?

Photo of Emory employees by John Bazemore/AP

Here's another transportation policy success story from France. The Vélib bike-sharing system celebrates its one-year anniversary today. In April, Streetfilms' Elizabeth Press was in Paris to learn more about it. Here is her video and report:

On July 15, 2007 Paris debuted the world's largest self-service "bicycle transit system" called Vélib outdoing previously designed bike share programs. Vélib is a balance of scale and functionality, clocking in with more than 20,000 bikes, and 1,451 docking stations, which are never more than 1,000 feet apart. As a result, Vélib is effectively a new form of public transportation that has generated more than 25 million new bicycle trips in its first year, 10% of which substitute former car trips.

Today the program celebrates its first anniversary. And, throughout the year cities across the globe have kept a close eye on the progress of this environmentally-friendly public transportation mode. Overall, bike-share programs have proven to increase public transportation options at a relatively low cost to the city. Any registered user can "borrow" a bike from a station for a nominal fee and return it to any other station in the system. In Paris, Vélib has saved the city 10 million km in car trips, roughly equal to $10 million in savings. With 200,000 Parisians paying the city $50 each for an annual Velib pass, this has yielded an additional $10 million in revenues. Beyond economics, Paris has seen tremendous traffic calming and air quality benefits from this public bicycle system.

Here in the States, a bike share program is about to kick off in Washington D.C., and Chicago and San Francisco are in the process of implementation as well. Last week the New York City Department of Transportation announced its plans to examine the possibility of creating a bike share program.