by Ben Fried on November 22, 2010

Rendering of a bike-sharing station at the Roosevelt Island F train station. Image: AccessRI/Hunter College Dept. of Urban Affairs and Planning.
After a long and tantalizing build-up, New York City will officially declare its intent to pursue a public bike-share system tomorrow, when it releases a request for proposals to potential operators, the Times reports. At a sufficient scale, the introduction of bike-sharing here promises to open up cycling to huge numbers of New Yorkers by making it more accessible and convenient.
Information on the potential size, density, and geographic reach of the system is sketchy-to-nonexistent at this point. Michael Grynbaum reports that it will consist of “hundreds or even thousands of bicycles” and that payment will probably be accepted using a subscription model. Update: Andrea Bernstein reports that the program would include about 10,000 bicycles. That is a serious number.