Bike Share Program Will Bring 10,000 Bikes To New York City

Anyone who has ever set foot in New York knows transportation options are plentiful. If you don’t want to hoof it through the city or jump in one of the Big Apple’s infamous yellow cabs, it’s possible to hop on subways, buses and even ferries. But after a few hiccups (mainly Superstorm Sandy), the New York City Department of Transportation is officially hopping on the bikeshare trend, and two-wheelers will be available to rent sometime this month, Associated Press is reporting.

London, Barcelona, Paris and Washington, DC are just a few other cities that have introduced bike share programs. But in New York, the undertaking is on a massive scale; when the program launches, there will be 6,000 bikes at 330 stations in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. And that’s just the beginning; there are plans to expand the bike share to 10,000 bikes and 600 docking stations across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

With stats like that, Associated Press reports New York’s bike share will be the largest of its kind in the country (in case you’re curious, the picture above is part of the world’s largest public bike share system is in Hangzhou, China, where there are an estimated 69,500 bikes and close to 3,000 docking stations). So this summer, take advantage of the 300 miles of new bike lanes the city has added in the past five years, plus 200 more miles of greenways and routes that traverse parks. Our prediction is it’s going to be a great summer to pedal around New York.

[Photo credit: Flickr user Payton Chung]