Nutter Aims for Bike Share by 2014


A-cup topography, high downtown density, and substandard public transportation make for perfect city biking conditions. It only makes sense, then, that the Mayor is aiming to give Philly a bike-sharing system to rival those already up and running in Boston, D.C., Minneapolis, and Denver. (Local bike share boosters have been begging for this for five years now. Here’s their suggested map for station locations.) Nutter wants the City Council to pony up three million dollars, while trying to raise the remaining five or six million from Harrisburg, Washington, and anywhere else he can. Most aspects of the bike share will likely mirror what’s available elsewhere: Around 1,200 hulking 40-pound frames, clustered in Center City and in student enclaves. In one respect, however, Philly’s trying to break from the norm by providing bikes–using cell phone payment or otherwise–to riders who don’t have credit or ATM cards. [CBS 3]