Finally! New York City's bike program has started and it seems to be a success. For now it is only open to the annual subscribers and only 6,000 bicycles are deployed but it will soon expand to the general public and boast 10,000 bikes.

Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, left, on Monday morning with Michele F. Imbasciani of Citibank, a sponsor of New York's new bike share program.

Times reporters raced around the city to see which was faster: bike, subway, cab or bus and the results are posted here:

Spoiler alert, the bike beat the subway and bus almost every time, and often the cab.

I've given Bloomberg his share of poor reviews in this blog but, to give the man credit, he pulled off this project and I wish it nothing but success.