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Bike share survey

By Nancy Guenther Chapman

Send signed letters to [email protected]

To the Editor:

The Mayor’s Bike/Walk Task Force with the Health Department, Rec and Parks, the Parking Authority and Planning and Zoning are exploring the possibility of bringing a bike share program to Norwalk.
 
Bike shares provide a network of bicycles available at self-service kiosks. Customers are able to access the bicycles with the use of a smartphone app and their debit or credit card by purchasing a one-time ride or an annual membership. Most systems allow customers to make as many trips as often as they would like without additional charges, provided they return the bicycles to a kiosk within 30-60 minutes. Bike shares are ideal for short distance trips and can provide a last-mile connection between transit and your final destination.

Our first step is to assess the level of interest in a bike share program via a brief electronic survey: Norwalk Bike Share Survey.  We encourage all of your readers to complete the survey and also share it widely on social media.
Nancy Rosett, Chair
Mayor’s Bike/Walk Task Force

Comments

5 responses to “Bike share survey”

  1. Paul Lanning

    In Manhattan, huge rows of bikes sit unused at these kiosks, taking up valuable space.

  2. James Cahn

    I think a cost neutral bike share program might be a neat and forward thinking idea in Norwalk. It would certainly make utilizing public transportation easier.

    However, the total lack of traffic enforcement in Norwalk would make the plan really unfeasible and a potential liability.

  3. Peter Franz

    Mr. Lanning,

    Instead of citing anecdotal evidence, I’d like to offer facts. The Citibike program you mention experiences 14 MILLION rides per year, and has surpassed over 60,000 rides in a single day.

    In my humble estimation, that’s not exactly idleness.

    Of course, this speaks to the exact reason why this survey is important, so we can have a fact-based conversation on how we can make our streets safer.

    I encourage everyone to take a minute to fill out the survey.

  4. Paul Lanning

    In NYC, 14 million bike rides per year isn’t very much when you consider that the city’s population is approx. 8,500,000.

    Likewise, compare 60,000 daily bike rides to 7,500,000 daily subway and bus rides.

    The best way to make Norwalk’s streets safer would be for the police to enforce traffic laws.

  5. Mike McElroy

    Merely citing populations and ride numbers without comparison to other bikeshare programs across the nation isn’t particularly helpful. NYC is a singularly huge and dense city, so it’s difficult to compare to, but Columbus, Ohio’s bike share serves 1/10th of the population (~850,000) and had about 1/300th (47,000) rides in 2016. So in comparison to other bikeshare programs, Manhattan is wildly successful.

    Manhattan of course has many advantages that Norwalk can’t replicate, and similarly Norwalk has many challenges that don’t exist in Manhattan, but dismissing the idea based on the comparisons you make seems facile.

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