I was at AIANY this week for the opening of their show Two Wheel Transit: NYC Bike Share, if you’ve been out of the loop on bike share, it’ll get you up to speed quickly. 

Most of us are getting excited for the bike infusion that we’ll be getting come this summer, a whooping 72% of New Yorkers say they support NYC Bike Share. But many, even the adoring, crush-capacity crowd at AIA who turned out to see Commissioner Sadik-Khan and Alta Bike Share’s Alison Cohen speak, still have some questions. 

One man (and for his sake, I am going to assume he is young, maybe a student or an artist or into improv theater) asked if since there were going to be so many new cyclists on the streets of Manhattan and since at least at first many of them might be riding the wrong way anyhow, if the City had considered making the Avenues two-ways for safety. Now that is a really charming idea. While I do support the idea of designing streets with the needs of pedestrians and cyclists at the fore; I am fairly certain we’re not yet at the point of converting all of the Avenues to two-way to accomodate wrong-way riding. 

What the City has already started to do, and will be doing a lot more of soon is educating cyclists about smart cycling behavior. I think in time more cyclists riding overall will also mean more cyclists riding the right way and not like street racers. And this will have a civilizing effect overall. Now this is totally anecdotal, but I feel like bike lights is a good example of this. A few years ago on the bridges listen very closely to tell whether or not a bike was stealthily approaching under the cover of darkness. Now it’s like a steady stream of blinky lights in both directions. I feel like a jerk when I forget mine at home. 

Of course there are some clever ways that the City can help spread the message about smart cycling, and get more salmon out of the stream. 

 @clarkebowling suggested more signs, like these in Providence (I am actually pretty sure we have a few of them in NYC already too). But do we need more permanent signs on our streets? We’re already at pretty epic levels of signage clutter in NYC already. 

Maybe a more temporary approach, paired with a press release or two about the campaign could make a splash. Here’s one fun idea that Mexico City used to educate cyclists after opening the city’s first protected bike lanes on the Reforma and starting their bike share program nearly two years ago. 

The new lanes on the Reforma go through the heart of Mexico City, and some of its highest rent districts. They have clear directional indicators in the lane itself reminding cyclists that the lane is one-way, this part’s permanent but doesn’t require new signage. 

Not actually a real cyclist. The City placed corrugated plastic life-sized cutouts of cyclists riding in the correct direction at intervals along the new lanes (kind of in the edge of the bike lanes, I propped this one up on the sidewalk to get a better shot of it). 

Before the lanes were filled with enough cyclists to clearly indicate the right way to ride, these guys (and there were ladies also) served as visual cues. This part’s temporary and can be paired with a media campaign and even direct outreach to cyclists on a few “bike smart” or “ride right” days. 

There are several interesting education campaigns out there that have been created in the lead-up to bike share launches in other cities. I’ll try and post a few more to pass the time as we countdown to 10,000 new bikes on our streets here.