[St. Mark's Place]
The Citi Bikes docking stations arrived in the neighborhood this past week, as you probably noticed... We did.
Our 12 posts on the topic fielded 277 comments, covering everything from the Fall of Rome, Nazi Germany, 9/11 and the Mayan Apocalypse.
These two had the most comments:
Reader mailbag: Have you read the Citi Bikes Rental Agreement? (49 comments)
And!
Here's another docking station for St. Mark's Place (49 comments)
Any thoughts on why this is such a divisive topic?
14 comments:
As a biker and driver i think the divisiveness comes from the heavy handed ill conceived execution of adding more biking to the city. The bike lanes were not planned out well, they took away parking and forced bikers and pedestrians into the same areas. The bike share takes away parking and pedestrian space. The city thinks anything worth doing is worth overdoing couple that with neighborhood nimbyism and you get the perfect storm of nyc bitchiness.
religion, dogs and NOW BIKES are tabu subjects.
folks are religious (oops) about them.
you're either for them or against them.
no grey areas here.
I just passed by the Astor Place 6 station and was taken aback by the number of docks there. I have been mildly in favor of the shitbike program (love bikes but prefer to have my own) but still taken aback at what a presence these things impose. But you know what, its meant to be a significant change in the transportation scene. Sorry to use such a noxious term but a paradigm shift if you will. Anytime you try to shake up the status quo its going to be uncomfortable and there will be resistance. Duhh!
After a while probably, it'll just blend in with the scenery. People will get used to it just like they do with dollar pizza joints, frozen yogurt shops, or annual MTA fare hikes. Nobody's going to make up "Shittbike" t-shirts, or stickers. Covering a Citi logo with a magnet isn't going to do shit for anybody. Nobody's going to go around slashing tires because you know what, no matter how opposed you are to bikeshare, you probably have a life to live and you won't spend time-energy on this because it does not affect your bottom line. You know, I know it, EVG knows it. People need to vent though, I get that.
How about the ones placed.in the truck loading zone on East 11 -bet First Avenue and Avenue A it's great to know that the are a bunch getting paid to make like more difficult and ridiculous for everyone else
G Whiz I think you hit the nail on the head!
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.
WHAT???......no Shitibike T-shirts.....another GREAT Mother's Day gift idea down the tubes......dammit!
But another tack.....I have always LOVED the NYC quick-witted one-liner putdowns....it's a city tradition dating back to at least the 1850s.....which has continued in the NetAge on many blogs....and, OF COURSE, superbly highlighted in this here blog's comment section.....so it was a spit-take for me the first time it was stated here (maybe on second post about the bikeshare).....it's timely, knee-capping, and it's got that "Schwetty Balls" thing going for it. Also, "Don't get mad....get ridicule-us."
Further, I find it hard to believe......REALLY hard to believe that there isn't some seasoned NYC silk-screener out there who isn't going to whip off a few 100 of Shitibike t-shirts to make a quick buck.....seems like a no-brainer to me.....but maybe NYC has changed more than even I can imagine.
a) Because they're ugly
b) Because they will be a bastion of corporate logo pushing
c) Because they are yet another intrusive symbol of Bloomberg's 'tourists over residents' philosophy
d) Because they are yet another intrusive symbol of Bloomberg's and his administration's (YOUR MOST HATED POLICY HERE)
John M is right on the money.
One obvious thing: the bike racks are everywhere, so a lot of people see them. They're not like an obnoxious bar or building, or a wonderful bar or building, because each of those is limited to a single location.
And, of course, hysteria feeds on hysteria, so you get this positive feedback loop.
I test rode one of the bikes, and they are fantastic. Can't wait until they are racked, and I'll spend the entire day from one corral to another just riding.
I was in D.C. this weekend, and used the Capital Bikeshare. In a word, I loved it. I've been a biker my whole life, often commuting to work, and I see this as opening up all sorts of possibilities to integrate biking easily into our lives. I am sympathetic to people who are resistant to change - I often grouse about how my East Village and NYC have changed in my 36 years of living here - but at some point you can't keep hanging on to things just because it's different from how it was when you moved here. People complain about removing parking spaces? Don't we all live here partly because you don't have to drive? Do you think bikes are uglier than a row of parked cars? Other complaints include the sponsorship - isn't that better than it being either too expensive for anybody BUT tourists, or paid for by taxes? Bikes and pedestrians sharing the streets? Sounds a lot better to me than having to fight cars all of the time. Bottom line - you'll all get used to it and move on to complain about other things.
I see the corporate shillers are back looking for more bonus.
Anyone who says that they've tried this in DC, Toronto, Paris, etc. and loved it, guess what? you guys were tourists there. And now those tourists from those and other cities/towns would be loving it too here, i.e. this Citi bikesharing is aimed mostly for tourists.
It's like you go on a vacation let's say Las Vegas or Disneyland, and yes you loved it, and now you want to bring those her, which is pretty much what Bloomberg is doing to the city -- making it into a theme park.
And, as if those bus tours roaming around one's neighborhood aren't cumbersome enough, gawking at the locals and residents on how we live our daily lives like animals in a zoo, judging "oh look, they're carrying their laundry, don't these people have washing machines". With these shittysharing, it'll just bring that superciliousness to a closer or in your face level.
I'm sick of reading about the fucking bike racks/docks fucking whatever. Why don't you interview an egg cream or something please?
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