Looking forward to the CitiBikes

I took this photo in New York, I was standing next to the Flatiron Building, if you click it, it will open larger. I wrote about CitiBikes coming to the Grove and other parts of the city, which I think is a great thing. In New York they are used constantly, I hear reports that the concept is not making money, but still, it sometimes looks like there are more people on bikes in NYC than there are in cars. It's overwhelming at many intersections. The bike racks seem to be all over, too.

When we do get the CitiBikes here, I wonder how it will work when people take the bikes out to various places around the village. Will they be safe when locked up? As we know now there is a problem with bicycle thefts in Miami.

Also, in New York and South Beach, there are bike racks all over the place, I don't see more than one or two in Coconut Grove, which is more than enough. But it really will be a great addition for tourism here, what would even be cool is if local hotels let their guests use the bikes for free, you know, have the hotel foot the bill for an hour or so. When I've traveled to other areas of Florida, this was an amenity of some of the hotels. I'm remembering the Four Points Hotel in Punta Gorda, I wrote this a few years ago:

In Punta Gorda, the hotel I was staying at, I think it was the Four Points, right on the Peace River, offered the bikes for free, so a friend and I took them up on the offer and we had a splendid day riding around the waterfront and downtown area. We stopped for lunch and that's when I took the photos for this story I did on the Gallery Walks. The bikes allowed me to see things that I wouldn't have experienced from the car while driving from one location to the next. You're more engaged with an area when your on bicycles.

The Grove is perfect for this.