By: Georgia Lobb
If you don’t have a bike, get one now. The future of commuting seems to be standing on two wheels.
According to Bikeshare.com, 2013 is the year of the bike.
“In 2013, North America will likely see the addition of eighteen new bike share programs, growing approximately 50 percent from 2012. This will bump the total number of bike share programs on the continent to 53,” wrote Matt Christensen on the site.
We wrote about the Citi Bike program in NYC earlier this month, the city that is setting the model for several others across the nation.
“Registration for New York’s bike share system officially opened 11 am Monday, and by 3 pm, some 2500 people had signed up. By 3:30 pm Tuesday, 5000 people had purchased $103 annual memberships,” according to Transportation Nation.
Here’s a map of the cities that will soon open bike share programs of their own.
You can view a bigger map here.
The next cities to launch their bike share programs are Salt Lake City, Utah, and Fort Worth, Texas.
The West Coast is certainly embracing the trend, as six different cities along the pacific plan to set their bike share programs in motion soon.
What’s the future of bike commuting for Fairfield County? Mike, a mechanic at Cycle Dynamics in Westport, said that the bike commuting population is indeed growing in our area, and that he estimates bike ridership has nearly doubled in the past two years.
And with plans such as Ridgefield’s bike path proposal in motion, it seems that we’re taking steps in the right direction to becoming an active community in the world of bike commuting.