Earlier this month, I wrote a post for Blooming Rock Development‘s blog about the forthcoming Phoenix bike share program. This news came in light of the mishaps with New York City’s CitiBike program. But, as streetsblog reported yesterday, the program is a hit regardless of difficulties with the bikes! This comes at a time when the heat is also so extreme that NYC set a record for the most energy used in a single day.
In just 8 weeks, usage skyrockets
As the streetsblog article states, this exceeds usage of bike share bikes in London, a city with approximately the same population. This type of program will certainly increase the number of people using active transportation to get to work, school, or the like. 30,000 daily users (perhaps more) in New York will benefit from a healthier mode of transport. We will see if Phoenix follows in its steps, but the built environment here in Phoenix will likely be a hindrance to high usage of the bikes (though, a spokesman from the City states that Reinvent Phoenix will seek to increase bikeability). Though, at least in NYC, they’ve proven that heat doesn’t deter people from riding!
Healthy Cities International 