In the last six weeks, the Citi Bike has become an omnipresent New York City character, appearing on a New Yorker cover, landing a supporting role with Leonardo DiCaprio's e-cigarette, and causing a Wall Street Journal board member nearly to burst into angry, elitist flames over the pernicious "all-powerful bike lobby."

The rich have a complicated relationship with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. They enjoy that he has developed a city that caters almost exclusively to them, but hate that it is almost exclusively theirs. There are now also those pesky little plebeians riding around on their brand-new bicycles (read: death chariots).