No Launch Date For NYC Bike Share [Transportation Nation]

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg (photo by Colby Hamilton/WNYC)

New York City won’t commit to a new launch date for its vaunted bike share, the largest planned for North America.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered the first explanation Thursday for why the city’s bike share program won’t launch in July: technical reasons.

At a ribbon cutting ceremony in the Harlem’s Sugar Hill, the mayor was asked when theprogram was going to be up and running — and what the problems were.

He replied: “Well, its software isn’t working yet. And just rest assured we’re not going to put out any program here that doesn’t work.”

He went to acidly comment that New Yorkers’ attitudes towards bike share seemed to be evolving. “What’s fascinating is there was a lot of screaming that ‘we don’t want bikes’ and now everybody’s screaming ‘we want ‘em now.’ We’re just not going to do it until it works. There’s no government money involved whatsoever here, the only thing about a delay — if it turns out there is one — is that people won’t be able to use something that we think is phenomenally popular. But until we get it working perfectly, have these private companies do it to our satisfaction, we’re just not going to put it out.”

[Keep reading at Transportation Nation]