The city is in the final stages of its selection process to find a vendor to run the proposed 10,000-bike system bike share program — an announcement that could come as soon as this month, sources tell WNYC. 

The DOT declined to comment. But its website projects the announcement will come in the summer of 2011.

The full program is slated to be up and running in the spring of 2012, and officials have said a pilot program to test the bikes could be in place as early as this fall.

Under the proposed bike share program, first reported by WNYC's Transportation Nation website last November, those paying annual or daily membership fees could pick up a bike in a number of locations and drop it off at any other station.

City officials expect the system will augment the city's subway system, which is not as accessible to residents on the far west and far east sides of Manhattan. Bike share will also allow riders traveling from east to west, who are now constrained to walk or use snail-like crosstown buses, to scoot across town.

New York's is projected to be North America's largest system. The second largest will be Mexico City's, which is looking to expand its 1,300-bike system to nearly 4,000. Montreal, Washington, D.C., Denver, and Minneapolis all have active bike shares, as do European cities including London, Paris and Barcelona.

For more on this story, go to our transportation website, TransportationNation.org