Then, they will buy their own bikes. Bike sharing is a gateway drug. More bikes are coming. You’ll have to accept this fact. Moreover, once they are here, people will continue to use them. It really doesn’t matter if Mr. Bloomberg’s successor cools on cycling. Bicycling is simply a more legitimate form of urban transportation.

This isn’t about what is being taken from you. It’s about what’s being given to you. You have a shot at free parking, a chance to not worry about traffic jams and a fun commute to work.

Don’t blow it.

JOSH KOSTER

Washington, July 1, 2013

Mr. Taustine is right that in a densely populated city like New York, we must look to use our space efficiently and equitably. But his disdain for “segregated [bike] lanes” forgets the car’s dominion over the rest of the street — and, too frequently, the bike lanes. Mayor Bloomberg’s advocacy of bikes might be considered a small step toward leveling the field.

In order to clear the sidewalks of locked bikes, the city should build more on-street bike corrals, which can hold upward of 20 bikes where only one car could have been, previously. This is a much more efficient use of urban space.

But bikes are instruments of a more fundamental equality. Driving in New York is a privilege afforded to those who can pay the high insurance rates, inevitable parking tickets and gas costs, not to mention the price of the vehicles themselves, which rise to the level of status symbols. Bikes are a far more accessible form of mobility. This is desperately needed in the most marginalized and disadvantaged communities; one must only consider the history of the word “ghetto” to understand that spatial segregation is fundamental to inequality. Bikes have the power to connect the poorest neighborhoods with the rest of the city. The Citi Bike program has the potential to be an important equalizer of the city — if only it would expand into those communities.

I celebrate Mayor Bloomberg’s bike-sharing efforts, and I hope that his successor continues his work.

JED BICKMAN

Brooklyn, July 1, 2013

The “clutter” of bicycles that Mr. Taustine decries reflects a problem for cyclists, too. Amazingly, as the number of cyclists increases, the number of places to lock bikes up has decreased precipitously. Parking meters along major streets used to provide a plentiful and excellent place to lock up, but they are being taken out as the new pay-and-display system is installed.