Or make that Paris’ bike system at least. There is an interesting letter in The Herald (UK) today regarding how cycle-friendly Paris actually. Particularly innovative is how Paris has incorporated cycling into their mass-transit strategy through their Velib Program. In my mind, the goal of any mass transit system should be to move people as effectively and quickly across the city, by any means. Too often, cities focus on trains, buses and the like and simply view adding some bike lanes as a political concession to yuppie, cyclist voters. This fails to capitalize on the tremendous potential that alternative transportation methods can offer.
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In NYC everyone looved the Paris bike-sharing program; many hope the Mayor will implement a New York version as part of PlaNYC.
Paris and New York are obvious fits for a system like that, the real question is whether a similar program could be set up in Ottawa.
Congestion in in the Ottawa downtown core is really only an issue during business hours, but there is a significant mass of people that bus into town during the day. While this group perhaps could be served by such a program, I doubt it would enough to justify the initial infrastructure. The best bet would be to start small and focus on those that in Centretown, the Market, Sandy Hill, and the Glebe. The core of people is there, but the real question is whether those that would use bikes already own and maintain their own.
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