If yesterday’s DOT announcement has whetted your appetite for public bikes, the New York Bike-Share Project has just the thing. From today until Monday, free bikes will be available at four locations in the general vicinity of Greenwich Village. To take one for a spin, participants sign a waiver and give their credit card information. There is no charge for the first 30 minutes.

Rather than duplicate the services of a bike rental shop, the goal is to encourage short, commuter-type trips, according to Lisa Chamberlain of the Forum for Urban Design, one of the organizers behind the project. This is the second year the Forum has helped put together a bike-share experiment. "When we did this last year, the idea was to get the attention of the
city," says Chamberlain. "This year it’s to reinforce the idea and to
raise the awareness of the public."

The locations open at 7:30 a.m. and close around 6 p.m., except for the Seventh Avenue South station, which will remain open until 8 p.m. The sites are each stocked with between five and eight bikes that will be re-distributed as needed.

The five-day demonstration will wrap up Monday evening with a reception at City Bakery featuring DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. 

Map of bike stations: New York Bike-Share Project