Today marked the official launch of the student bike share program at the Maryland Institute College of Art. The Students for a Sustainable Campus group with the cooperation of Baltimore Bicycle Works have 4 bikes available for students to check out for 48 hours with a U-Lock. Students are required to receive a brief training and information session before they can use the Bike Share. Students who have completed the session receive a note on their student ID which allows them to check out bikes.

Students who participate in the Bike Share can also get 15 percent off anything at Baltimore Bike Works. I think Loyola has  a bike share also, but this is a first for MICA and is a great resource for students who don’t have bikes.

More photos here.

Next Wednesday the Maryland Institute college of art will launch it’s bike share program with 4 bikes in cooperation with Baltimore Bicycle Works. Students will be able to register and learn about bike safety in MICA’s brown center next Wednesday in MICA’s Brown Center. Students will need to provide their own helmets in order to take out a bike. More information here :

http://www.mica.edu/News/MICA_Bike_Share_Launch_Wednesday_Feb_10.html

So the Bixi bike share pop-up spots have been showing up as scheduled, Union Square, and on Sunday on Avenue A outside Tompkins Square Park.

The guy in this picture is not a Bixi Employee, he was working with some three wheeled trike company and was giving rides around the park (and on the sidewalk) - but one violation at a time folks. He mentioned something about the Bixi Parent company being associated with some really dangerous mining in Africa.. or something.

As they were cleaning up and picking up the bikes, however, some Bixi employees couldn’t be bothered to move one of their trucks in a few feet to fit their pickup truck with the bikes in it, forcing cyclists on Avenue A into the street – and forcing others to accept the irony of the situation. Bixi needs to teach these employees a bit about safe parking and Irony – otherwise, full speed ahead on public bike share programs!

Being my friendly self I gently informed the 3 Bixi reps standing outside the park of the dangerous situation they had on their hands as the truck was parked in a bike lane right near a busy intersection and Bus Stop. They said it would be gone in 5 minutes, as a few more cyclists rode out into traffic. As any cyclist in NYC knows, 5 minutes doesn’t make a difference once you’ve been out in traffic because someone couldn’t be bothered to move a truck forward and find a curbside spot.

Bixi has been contacted for a follow up about the parking.

Here’s a final bit of irony, provided by Bixi’s website :