"If Citi Bike were NASA, there'd be a lot of dead astronauts."

Excerpt from Anne Kadet's WSJ article on NYC's new bike-sharing program:

... To get started on Citi Bike, I walked five blocks to the nearest docking station in Brooklyn Heights, fed my debit card to the kiosk, skipped past the fine print and selected a $10, 24-hour access pass.

I should have read the legalese. On my initial foray—a trip out to Ditmas Park to meet my little sister for hummus—I unwittingly violated three of the program's "prohibited acts": I let sis borrow the bike, I talked on the phone while pedaling and, worst of all, I locked the bike to a street pole while we ate.

Turns out, you're only supposed to park at one of the 330 Citi Bike docking stations between downtown Brooklyn and 59th Street in Manhattan. If you fail to dock within a half hour, the overtime fees kick in, and they're mighty steep. My total bill for a three-hour trip: $63. At that rate, I could have rented a Zipcar.

The article is definitely worth a read. They look fun to ride but the pricing system seems designed to bilk you with penalties.