“We finally celebrate the bicyclization of urban America.”

Image via People Looking at Citi Bike

With the launch of New York’s Citi Bike and Chicago’s Divvy Bikes, James Hamblin of The Atlantic declares 2013 “The Summer Bicycles Took Control.”

Some select passages:

The bottom line is that one contentious month since the launch of New York’s program — with riders as bad as they’ll ever be, and the blue paint without any sun-fading to tone down the gaudiness — the actual majority of New Yorkers love the bikes. Numbers released yesterday from Quinnipiac University showed overwhelming approval.

If we made it through this first harried month and most people still don’t hate the bikes, it’s not likely they’re going to start hating them once they’re woven into the city’s cultural identity. When London launched its bike-share program, which is probably the closest one to New York’s, there were similarly vocal Hyde Park detractors. But years later, it’s still alive.

No transport system is perfect, but bike-sharing is promising, and among the best we have. Look forward to more stories from the grand New York experiment, to inform, amuse, and challenge the rest of the country. Young, wild, free: the SoulCycle of the people. On this eve of the 100th Tour de France, we finally celebrate the bicyclization of urban America.