Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate and Tea Party [3] favorite Dan Maes [4] warned crowd of supporters that Denver's new bicycle sharing program is really a disguised plot by the United Nations [5] to "rein in American cities" and put the environment above citizens' rights. The program started this year and is called B-Cycle [6]. It stations 400 red bikes at various locations around the city, and makes them available for short trips to anyone who pays a membership fee to join the program. "This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed," Maes warned a group of about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally in the Colorado city of Centennial. "It's bigger than it looks on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms," Maes added. "These aren't just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed onto." Maes was referring to the City of Denver's membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives [7], a group that has about 1,200 member cities globally, about half of which are in the U.S. The group encourages cost-efficient, sustainable development at the local level, to make cities more livable.