WASHINGTON — Can Americans share? Or, at least, not steal?

That question hung over the rows of identical fire-red bicycles lined up last week for the start of Capital Bikeshare in Washington, the nation’s largest bike-sharing program.

Similar programs also began this year in Denver and Minneapolis, with another to start in Miami this fall. At the same time, startup companies with names like SnapGoods, Share Some Sugar and NeighborGoods are trying to make money by using social networks to let people borrow or lend their stuff, either free or for a fee. These companies are looking to join a familiar list — including Netflix, Zipcar and Pandora, the online radio service — built on access to goods and services, rather than ownership.

But the question is whether most consumers would ever accept time-share ownership of a bike or a blender. After a bike-share program began in Denver, one gubernatorial candidate in Colorado attacked the program as un-American.

But some scholars say that the Internet — by fostering collaboration on a communal, open platform — has changed the way Americans think about sharing and ownership. Collaborative habits online are beginning to find expression in the real world.

Bike sharing is nothing new. Early efforts, beginning with shared bikes on college campuses in the 1960s and early 1970s, relied mostly on trust. That model worked in some small towns like Crested Butte, Colo., but tended to collapse quickly in urban environments. (In 2005, a bike-sharing program started in Edmonton, Alberta; 95 percent of its bikes were stolen after three years.)

The bike-share programs now spreading to cities like Paris, Washington and Hangzhou, China, follow a subscription model and use electronic tracking to deter theft. (By contrast, college campuses use a library model, with bikes loaned for extended periods.)

And like most share programs, a credit card is required for collateral. There may also be membership fees and escalating usage charges. (The first 30 minutes are generally free.) So, while it may be sharing, its success is based on technology — and a deposit.

In Paris, vandalism and theft have plagued the city’s bike-share program, started in 2007, with most of its 20,000 bikes needing either repair or replacement.

And in a nod to our darker side, some advocates of sharing are betting that success is based on, well, self-interest.

“Sharing takes away all the headaches of ownership, and people see that pretty clearly,” said Parry Burnap, executive director of Denver Bike Sharing, a nonprofit that runs the program.