The New York City Police Department, with its 35,000 officers, has in recent years been on the front lines of the citywide decline in serious crime. It has protected visiting dignitaries like Pope Benedict XVI at events that drew thousands of people, and it has posted officers in foreign capitals to gather information on terrorism and trends that could threaten New York.

But the Police Department continues to be flummoxed by bicyclists riding together once a month.

The city took a tentative step this week toward fulfilling the dream of a certain kind of urban idealist, saying that it will explore the possibility of creating a bike-sharing program that could make hundreds or even thousands of bicycles available for public use.

“This is a really big deal,” said Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group for cyclists, pedestrians and transit riders. “In the realm of things you can do to boost bicycling in a city, bike-share is at the top of the list.”

The city asked companies and organizations interested in running a bike-sharing program to provide assessments of how it could work.

A similar program was started last year in Paris, using thousands of bicycles. A program with 120 bicycles was started earlier this year in Washington.

By Robin Shulman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, May 25, 2008;

Page A02

NEW YORK -- The view from the lens of photographer Mark Weiss's camera is of a treacherous world of cab drivers weaving into bike lanes, of double-parked delivery vehicles, of car doors opening suddenly, of pedestrians wandering blindly and of narrow passageways between trucks. It is the world of the Manhattan bicycle commuter, which Weiss captures on a camera affixed to a bar on his single-gear bike.

City officials, hoping to make commutes like his less treacherous, have created a seven-block experiment of a bike lane on Ninth Avenue. Here, concrete dividers and a row of parked cars shield a bike lane from the street and its traffic. Low mini-traffic lights show when cyclists have the right of way. Bike commuters, messengers and delivery people peel down perfectly smooth paths.

"It would be nice if that were everywhere," said Weiss, 45.

The city is planning to create another protected lane on Eighth Avenue, part of an effort to encourage cycling in New York, where bike use has increased by 75 percent since 2000, to about 130,000 commuters a day. The city hopes to double current bicycle use by 2015 and to triple it by 2020.

"We've run out of room for driving in the city. We have to make it easier for people to get around by bikes," said Janette Sadik-Khan, the city's transportation commissioner, who herself bikes to work. She is installing covered bike racks that resemble bus shelters, distributing thousands of free helmets, and expanding a small network of bike lanes to 400 miles by next summer (out of 6,000 miles of city streets).

PARIS, Sept. 29 - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, on his first trip here since he took office, acknowledged the challenges of bringing home a popular Parisian bike rental program the administration is exploring, saying he was unsure it would translate to New York.

Noting challenges like roads damaged by seasonal changes, the lack of bike lanes, liability problems and the possibility that commuters would not want to carry helmets to work, Mr. Bloomberg said: "You try to see whether it fits, and some parts of it will, but it may very well give you an idea to do something totally different."

Under the program, which started in July, thousands of bicycles are docked along Paris streets, and customers can rent them after buying a membership ranging in time from a day (about $1.30) to a year (about $38). Members pay by the half-hour, with the first 30 minutes free. To discourage long rides, the fee rises from $1.30 for the second half-hour to $5.20 for the fourth.

Judging from the lines of empty consoles in the city center and the ubiquity of riders, even in the rain, the program has been a hit here, despite occasional technical glitches and a lack in some places of empty spots to return a bicycle. One official told Mr. Bloomberg that 100,000 people had signed up for yearly membership and that customers had taken more than 5 million rides.

Whether such a system could survive in New York, where bike theft is common, remains to be seen. Lionel Bordeaux, a press officer for City Hall here, said the fact that all fees were paid by credit card, and a roughly $200 charge for unreturned bikes, discouraged stealing.

A satirist dressed as a preacher and protesting what he called the Disneyfication of New York City was arrested Friday for harassing police in Union Square before the start of a monthly bicycle rally that the Bloomberg administration has been trying to rein in.

Bill Talen, who performs under the name Reverend Billy, said that he was arrested after trying to defend the cyclists' rights by reading the First Amendment to the police - through a bullhorn. The authorities said that he was arrested after repeatedly being told to stop.

Mr. Talen was charged with two counts of second-degree harassment. He was released without bail pending a court date in August.

"We were full of the holy spirit of the First Amendment," said Mr. Talen, who is in his mid-50s and was dressed like a big-tent evangelist, with a white suit and a dyed-blond pompadour. He sometimes spreads his message with the help of the Church of Stop-Shopping Gospel Choir.

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Talen defended his performance art. "New York City won't exist if we won't let creativity happen in public space," he said.

Mr. Talen said he was at Union Square to support the cyclists taking part in Critical Mass, a monthly ride aimed at promoting nonpolluting forms of transportation. Critical Mass riders gather the last Friday of every month at Union Square.

notes from May critical mass ride. snipet below...

9:50pm :
Got a report that around 40th and Broadway a woman was doored by a cop car while in motion. She was in the bike lane. She face planted and broke her colar bone. There is credible evidence that entire incident was witnessed.

----------------------------------------- CRIMINAL MASS ( documentary )-------------------

- A journey through the Critical Mass Bicycle Ride and America’s right to assemble. Filmmaker Christopher J. Ryan ( Warriors: the Bike Race, Still We Ride, Team Spider Television ) has spent the last 18 months tracking his personal experiences as a Critical Mass bike rider, as well as his subsequent journey through the New York State Criminal Court system. The colorful, poignant, and often funny story is told through video footage that includes video diaries, bicycle chase scenes, paddy wagon interviews shot by Chris’ handcuffed hands , voyeuristic NYPD helicopter footage, as well as daring video exposing the presence of NYPD’s previously denied undercover agents ( recently used as the basis of a recent New York Times cover story ). Throughout his extensive journey, Chris tries to juggle his time- consuming legal battles and courtroom appearances, with his day-job working, ironically, on television’s “Law and Order” where he lights the large courtroom sets that are used to pretend to prosecute the city’s real crimes. His misadventures are intertwined with a colorful cast of characters, including:

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-His fellow arrestees, who form a legal aid group known as FREEWHEELS, as they become unwilling participants in the cat & mouse style police chases and exhaustive legal battles. -Chris’ VIDEO CAMERA, a character unto itself as the beaten and bruised little camcorder is repeatedly smashed to pieces and miraculously brought back to life by a sympathetic television news technician named “FLIP”. -Chris’ Father, KEVIN, a military officer and Vietnam veteran, who, horrified at the recent treatment of Cindy Sheahan, becomes heavily involved in his son’s legal battles. -Dozens of unlikely “criminals” such as 8-year old JENNA, who can’t understand “why the police arrest bicyclists” and SHARON, who, at seven months pregnant, when sent to jail for standing on the sidewalk with her bike the night of a Critical Mass ride. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------

- Criminal Mass examines the erosion of the American people’s personal freedoms, privacies, and the right to assemble, while celebrating the unexpected positive effects, communities and friendships forged in the face of injustice.