What might sound like a great idea to some makes me think "are you out of your freakin mind?" Link

Citi Bike, due to launch in July, will be the largest public bike share system in the US, with bikes placed in 600 docking stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Citi has paid $41m to sponsor the scheme, in return for royal blue branding across bikes and stations.

The scheme will be operated by Alta bicycle share, which runs similar projects in Washington DC and Boston.

"The idea behind bike share is simple: give people one more way to get around town," Bloomberg said in a statement.

"The new Citi Bikes will be an affordable, entirely new, 24/7 transportation network that will help New Yorkers get where they're going faster. When the walk seems a little far, New Yorkers can choose to skip the hike, and take a bike."

Yeah. Bike share. Great. There aren't exactly bike paths that go from Downtown to Uptown. Have you heard the complaints from bike messengers about getting creamed by car doors suddenly being opened in front of them? Or getting cut off by a vehicle making a right turn? Now you're going to set loose a group of people inexperienced with riding a bike on Manhattan roads (e.g. tourists) and say good luck? Oy.

And if they don't get hurt by accident, i'm pretty sure some frustrated cabbie is going to start taking them out on purpose**.

Then there's the riders who want to be "safe" and try to ride their bikes on the sidewalks. Oh yeah. That's going to go over really well.

**For an example of how you might die by taxi if you don't cross the street properly, ask typer195.