They rose from the earth overnight, some said, muscling the cars from their curbside perches: more than 300 hulking monuments to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s surrender to the whims of the New York City cyclist.

But even as the bike-sharing stations remain a source of dismay to some residents, they have served to illustrate a well-worn maxim of urban planning: If you build something, New Yorkers will find a way to lean on it.

Joining the ranks of fire hydrants, pay-phone booths and signposts before them, the bike kiosks have increasingly assumed an expanded role.

They provide temporary seating outside restaurants, when the bar is full.

They are high enough for a man to press his foot against to tie his shoe without bending over, and low enough for a dog to swathe almost the entire surface with urine.