Undeterred by opponents, Bike advocates advance

The naysayers believe the bikes will be vandalized and stolen, and this has been a problem in other cities.

In response, the program will require a credit card, and uses ugly bikes embedded with GPS tags.

I hope these adaptations do the trick. It never ceases to amaze me that people steal crappy bikes. At some point, won't New York reach a saturation point in which the supply of used bikes allows everyone who wants a bike to get one cheaper than it would cost to steal?

Booklaw-

No matter who the bike thief is, or what his skill set, there are opportunity costs to stealing a bike.

For example, I could be shoplifting instead. If I was more skilled, I could be burglarizing. If I was a heroin addict and had heroin on hand, I am forgoing the opportunity to inject myself for the moment I am stealing your bike in exchange for getting something I can sell later to get more heroin.

But, yes, it is unfortunate that only people who have the demonstrated means to buy a bike (aka a credit card with some "room on it") will be able to rent a bike. ...but I am ok with that.

I bet the rental bikes end up getting stolen less often than regular bikes that are usually stored outside.

I do worry about the bored teenager who likes stabbing the tires of a rack of unattended bikes, but expect that such incidents can be paid for by the profits from rentals.

I would be ok with a small subsidy from the city if this project is a money loser.