Skip to Content
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Log In
Bike Sharing

“The Daily Show” on Citi Bike: “Doesn’t Anybody Have a Real Objection?”

Forget the ridership numbers: you know you've hit the big time when Jon Stewart and company spend a full nine minutes satirizing you at the top of "The Daily Show."

The first segment, which leans heavily on the fact that European cities also have bike-share and pseudo-satirizes unfounded fears about the program’s safety, is funny while not exactly pro-bike. But the second segment, embedded above, is a needed laugh for New Yorkers who have endured nonsensical objections about bike-share from NIMBY neighbors and editorial board members alike.

Correspondent Al Madrigal traveled to the West Village to talk to people who object to bike-share in the pricey Manhattan neighborhood. "Apart from the 159 meetings, they didn't say a word," Madrigal said to a man who claimed the stations appeared overnight and without warning. "Even though that's not true," Madrigal asked, "why is it?"

Madrigal also went to Bedford-Stuyvesant to hear from a man who complained that the program wasn't expanded further into Brooklyn. Let's just say Bed-Stuy's residents come off looking a lot more reasonable -- and also managed to pop a wheelie for the camera.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Los Angeles

L.A. City Council Committees Approve Road Widening Reforms

The city Bureau of Engineering proposal should minimize road widening at future private developments, but there are several widening situations it does not address, including BOE's own road widening projects

October 10, 2024

How to Defeat Car Culture in America’s Deadliest City for Pedestrians

"How do you market hundreds of miles of ‘road diets’ in the car capital of the nation?"

October 9, 2024

L.A. City Council Approves On-Bus Camera Enforcement of Bus-Only Lanes

After outreach and a 60-day warning period, actual bus lane citations are likely to start in early 2025

October 8, 2024

Baldwin Park Gets Funds for Another Pocket Park

The city can’t seem to stop building parks, and this latest installment will make use of a pair of empty lots near the San Gabriel River.

October 8, 2024
See all posts