It’s Official: NYC Bike Share Delayed Until Spring
The NYC Department of Transportation sent out an official press release today confirming that the city’s much touted bike share program would not be launching until spring 2013. This press release followed Mayor Bloomberg’s statement on his radio show admitting that the bike program could not begin as scheduled because of software problems. Mayor Bloomberg said, “The software doesn’t work. Duh. Until it works, we’re not going to put it out until it does work.”
Duh.
The original launch date of the city bike share was supposed to be July 31, but that date passed without the planned roll-out of the new cycles because of software issues. At the time, there were already rumors that the technical glitches would prevent the bike share program from launching until next spring, but nothing was confirmed.
Well, today it was finally confirmed. Bloomberg was quick to point out that this isn’t a reason to get frustrated at city government or wonder where your hard earned tax dollars are headed. He said, “It’s all private money. And the people who’ve put up the money, particularly the two big sponsors, Citibank and MasterCard, are fully aware of what’s going on and they have been as supportive as you possibly can be. The city loses because we don’t have bicycles, but the city doesn’t lose any money or anything, and we all want to get it done as quickly — but you’ve got to do it right.”
Which is all true. Because as great as it will be to have easily accessible bikes for New Yorkers to use, the headaches and frustration and cycle-rage that will be caused if the software starts to go haywire would be terrible. It would be chaos! Chaos on thousands of bikes that look like Citibank ATM kiosks! Insanity would almost certainly ensue. And no one want that.
Follow Kristin Iversen on twitter @kmiversen
