Bike Sharing Concept Could One Day Ride Into New York

A year after Mayor Bloomberg took a skeptical view of Paris's bike sharing program, the city's Department of Transportation is expressing interest in creating a similar system.

Yesterday, the DOT issued a request for proposals from organizations and companies that could advise the city on how to create a bike sharing program. In Paris and many other European cities, bike sharing programs involve thousands of bicycles that can be unlocked, ridden, and returned to different locations for a small fee. In Washington, D.C., a similar program, though on a smaller scale, began in May.

While in Paris last year, Mr. Bloomberg told the New York Times that the implementation of a bike sharing program in New York would face challenges, such as damaged roads and a small — but increasing — number of bike lanes.

"There's a really good skeleton of a bike network," the director of bicycle advocacy for Transportation Alternatives, Caroline Samponaro, said. "The city is in the process of adding hundreds of miles, so I think this is the right time to introduce this next step."

To demonstrate that it can work in New York, the Forum for Urban Design will begin a five day bike sharing program today. According to its executive director, Lisa Chamberlain, the organization has set up four locations in lower Manhattan where people can go, leave their credit card information, borrow a bike for 30 minutes, and return it to any of the locations.

Ms. Chamberlain said it was likely that Clear Channel, JC Decaux, and Cemusa — the company that built New York's new bus shelters — would submit proposals to the city.