Alta also manages bike share systems in Boston and Washington DC, but Portland hasn't determined yet who will run the local bike share program city council okayed moving forward last month.
Like Portland's system, New York's will focus on putting a high density of stations in certain neighborhoods where people could check out and return bikes for a small fee. Portland is looking at 740 bikes placed at stations just in downtown and inner Eastside (with a few far flung stations at places like Portland Community College on NE Killingsworth), while NYC is aiming at Manhattan south of 79th Street, Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Park Slope, and Carroll Gardens. The cost to consumers looks like it'll be about the same, with a Zipcar-style year-long membership in New York's system costing "less than $100" and Portland's likely to run you $60-95.
Their timeline is faster than ours, though. By the time Portlanders can check out their first shared bikes in fall of 2013, New Yorkers will have already been cruising around their streets for a year.
