“The people that are putting up the money understand,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “They’re probably not any happier about it than the people who want to rent the bikes or you and me or everybody else. But that’s the real world.”

Alta has encountered delays to its programs in other cities. Last week, Chicago announced that its program would be delayed until next spring, after initially planning to begin in late summer. An Alta program in Chattanooga, Tenn., was also delayed because of software problems, though it began last month.

Some have attributed the software glitches to a continuing dispute between the Public Bike System Company, Alta’s Montreal-based partner, and 8D Technologies, which supplied the software for successful programs in Boston and Washington, among other cities.

The Public Bike System Company has severed ties with 8D for the installation of new technology in cities like New York and Chattanooga. The change was probably responsible for the delays, said Isabelle Bettez, the chief executive of 8D.

“What was sold to these cities is not what, at the end of the day, will be installed,” Ms. Bettez said in an interview last week. “The technological solution is a big, big part of the system, not the one that you necessarily see. You see it when it doesn’t work.”

Asked on Friday about the criticism of Alta in recent weeks, Alison Cohen, the company’s president, said she could not “comment on what other people are saying.”

“Obviously, we’re disappointed in the timeline,” she said. “We regret that it happened in this way.”