Leave it to the Wall Street Journal to one-up Rob Ford on anti-cyclist rhetoric. After two weeks of technical problems that have marred the launch of New York City’s Citi Bike bike sharing program, WSJ editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz claimed to represent the “majority of citizens” with her view that the city’s best neighbourhoods have been “begrimed” by bike racks. Ignoring cited statistics that over the last four years zero pedestrians have been killed by bikes while 597 have been hit with cars and trucks in the city, Rabinowitz goes on to say that “every citizen [knows]” that erratic, entitled cyclists empowered with Mayor Bloomberg’s blessing pose the greatest danger to street users. Suffice it to say, Rabinowitz is no fan of Bloomberg’s “autocratic,” “totalitarian” government for aggressively expanding cycling infrastructure, bending to the influence of the “all powerful” bike lobby.
Keep in mind that in Citi Bike’s two week existence nobody has died and only two are known to have been injured, the second of whom seemed more concerned about returning his bike to avoid late fees that whatever ailments he may have sustained.
Though the WSJ may have a valid point about the sudden influx of cycling advocates working within the New York City administration, not everyone in NYC is as incensed over Citi Bike. However, many would-be supporters have been extremely frustrated with the seriously flawed roll-out of the bike share program. NPR affiliate WNYC reported this week that 10 per cent of Citi Bike stations appear to “fail” each day. Software problems are keeping users from renting or returning bikes and empty stations aren’t showing up on the Citi Bike app the way they are supposed to. Seemingly every news outlet and blog has their own anecdotes about two-wheeled folly making Citi Bike the hottest topic to complain about in the Big Apple.
Meanwhile, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford – who as a city councillor famously said “it’s their own fault at the end of the day” when people are killed in cycling accidents and that cycling on Toronto’s streets was like “swimming with the sharks” – is looking like Lance Armstrong in comparison. At the opening of a new (admittedly imperfect) bike lane on Sherbourne this week, the mayor managed to eek out a few words of recognition for the city’s cyclists he so frequently finds himself at odds with: “You [won’t] see me cycling from Etobicoke down here, but some people might want to do that and all the power to ‘em.” The significance of this turn around cannot be understated. However, Ford does not believe in Toronto’s own fledgling (flailing?) BIXI bike share program, telling reporters in May that the financially-challenged enterprise “should be dissolved. It’s a failure.”
The two cities’ programs are very different. Toronto’s 1,000 bikes and 80 stations pales in comparison to NYC’s 6,000 bikes and more than 300 stations. More significantly, Citi Bike is a for-profit company that operates without a municipal subsidy, relying on member fees and advertising revenues from Citigroup. BIXI, though not funded directly from tax dollars, stays afloat thanks to a city-guaranteed start-up loan. When it was revealed that BIXI had been unable to make their loan payments due to lower than expected revenues, city staff recommended that the municipality assume ownership of the system, though its future remains in question.
New York is having technical trouble and Toronto is having financial trouble. These are not insurmountable challenges (fix the software! expand the system!), though the considerable chaos they have created do not reflect well on Alta Bike Share and Public Bike System Company. The operators who run the Citi Bike and BIXI systems respectively are troubled partners (the two companies appear to be embroiled in some kind of legal dispute) and have failed to deliver on their promises to residents of both cities. There is more to be investigated here and the individuals involved should be held to account.
But Torontonians and New Yorkers would be hasty to give up on bike share programs in their infancy or point to cycling as the menace here. Cycling represents a low-cost transit alternative that fills an important gap in both cities’ transportation networks. But don’t expect pundits to tone it down anytime soon. The volume of news coming out about Citi Bike proves that, love ’em or hate ’em, the role of the bike in North American cities will continue to be an effective wedge issue for retail politicians and media firebrands for the time being.
CORRECTION: This article previously stated that WNYC was an affiliate of PBS, when in fact it is an affiliate of NPR. We regret the error.
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Michael Kolberg is The Sprawl Editor at Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter for jokes @mikeykolberg.
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