Biking Toward Greater Equity

A bigger and more concerning challenge, though, in New York City and elsewhere, has been ensuring that the docking stations are distributed equitably across a diverse range of neighborhoods. Too often, bike-share programs don’t serve low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, focusing instead on more affluent areas of the cities in which they operate. In Boston, for example, one study found that nearly 43 percent of white residents live near a bike-share station, compared with only 7 percent of black residents. The same study found that bike share programs in Chicago, New York City, Denver, and Seattle all show significant disparities in access according to residents’ race, education, and income. As one article put it plainly: “The poor bike, the rich bike-share.”

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/biking-toward-greater-equity_us_596f57eae4b07f87578e6d51?section=us_new-york