If not in NYC you might not have heard the news, but New York City has a bike share program at long last! The bikes are sturdy, with adjustable seats and are firmly locked in stations all over downtown, midtown and more the wealthy areas in Brooklyn. Here is the current coverage map:
http://citibikenyc.com/...
In order to implement the system without drawing criticism (it is hard to believe that people would complain about such a thing but they do!) the DOT made the decision to use no tax dollars to implement the program. Instead they negotiated a huge sponsorship from CitiBank ($40 Million!) to get the system up and running. In exchange, CitiBank gets a large amount of advertising (the bikes are heavily branded) --and the potential for good will from more liberal New Yorkers who like such programs (some of these same New Yorkers might have been among those who pulled their money out of banks and moved to Credit Unions during the Occupy protests.) So, this has real value in many ways for CitiBank.
And I even think this is fine for proving that the system can work in NYC, but, in the end, being reliant on private contributions is just exacerbating the differences between the posh parts of the city and the places that are often forgotten. Those parts of the city often have higher population densities than some of the current regions served and in some cases, due to more sparse transit service, they have a greater need for bike share stations of their own.
There were plans to extended the network in stages to almost the whole city, but this is very much dependent one funding: Private funding.
Private funding will want to concentrate where it can advertise best to those with the most "disposable income", not where it is really needed most.
Now this is just an example of something that happens all of the time in different ways. But it need not be this way. Recently, the parks department has been better about talking care of parks on poorer NYC neighborhoods. (not a perfect job, but better) You have no idea what a big difference this makes! While none of the outer-borro parks has a huge trust fund like Central Park (a trust fund composed of contributions from the wealthy who live near the park, that continues to gain contributions that it really dosen't even need...) they are, for the most part, doing much better. And it brings people out to socialize, it makes the streets safer and improves quality of life.
Bike share is an amenity just like basketball hoops, a park merry-ground, a subway or even the sidewalk. It makes life a little nicer, it serves a purpose: from transportation to fun. And YES it is needed in Harlem, The Bronx, Washington Heights, Inwood, Jackson Heights and beyond.
The next phase should be based on population density not the income of the residents.
For all of the writing I have done to support bikes as a sensible form of transportation, for all of the contributions I have made in time and money to bike-friendly organizations in NYC, if this program can't grow up to serve the whole city I may have to leave it off of my list of "great achievements" for the health and safety of NYC.
And I don't see that fairness coming to play unless it's publicly funded.