I’ve always seen the promise of bike share. Ever since I first laid eyes on those beauties in Lyon, France, I thought that bike share would help transform Seattle into a place where biking is mainstream. Since then, I’ve collaborated in meetings with a host of Seattle-area partners — jurisdictions, businesses, academic institutions — who want to make it happen. We even got a small grant to start looking at which business model would make most sense. Bike Share is in countless European cities — and other cities like Montreal, Melborne, Denver, Minneapolis, are doing it, too.
It’s one thing to be a supporter, though. It’s another to have ridden.
I vowed in my last dispatch to ride down Pennsylvania Avenue’s new bike lanes on D.C.’s new Capital Bikeshare bikes. And after a dozen meetings with congresspeople and their aides today (and then a side trip for a beer and a super-late lunch), that’s exactly what I did.
Let me be honest: after a day of meetings and after the machine failed to spit out the code to unlock the bike from the dock, I had to call the customer service line. I had just come from an Irish pub. I did my best not to look like a tourist. I was desperate. But in 20 seconds, I was on my way. Five dollars a day for unlimited use. 1,100 bikes and 110 stations. I was soon speeding along with traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue heading toward the White House. I was grinning. I shifted into third.
I turned around and rode back to the same dock — a joyride that isn’t really what the system is for (or is it?) I had a reception to go to, so this was just a test ride. But after the reception, I had to head back to the hotel. A D.C. friend, formerly a nonprofit champion in Seattle, showed me his phone: “This is where all the stations are. There are four left just around the block. Oh, and here’s your destination. There’s a station a block away.” Bike share mobile app: a perfect tool.
I was off.
It was easy. It was fast. It was cheap. It was fun. I even bumped into our advocacy director David Hiller randomly along the way.
A supporter before, I’m a believer now. And with National Bike Summit complete and only the evening parties to attend, I’m hopping back on a Capital Bikeshare bike in three minutes, as soon as I finish this post. Really.
Cool post, John! So, there are various bike share stations around the city and you can pick up a bike at one location and drop it off at another? (I’m more familiar with the car share model where you have to bring the car back to the same place.)
Also, do they have different sizes of bicycles? Can moving the seat up and down make the same bike workable for anyone?
I keep going back to see if I misread and it’s actually Copenhagen or Amsterdam you’re talking about. This is in America?
Great article. I had no idea DC had a Bike Share. 1,100 bikes and 110 stations? Amazing.
I’m shocked!
Great post, John! See you at this week’s kickoff meeting…bring your unabashed enthusiasm!
Thanks, All.
@Stacey: Yes, the idea worldwide is that the bikes are useful for short trips (the pricing structure demonstrates this: after the initial daily or yearly fee, it’s usually free for the first 1/2 hour and then progressively increases). Thus, multiple stations (a few dozen to hundreds) are well-dispersed in areas of the urban core with high potential (or reality) for short trips. To your adjustability question: the seat post is adjustable and there are other design features like a step-through frame, an upright position and a chainguard, among other things, that help make the bikes comfortable– but in reality, adjustability is an issue for bike share bikes. We may see new adjustability ideas in the near future.
@Eric: Yes, right here in the USA. Several other cities, as I mentioned, have working systems. And there are several in the works for this and next year. I think it’s fair to say that bike share will soon approach “normal” in most of our larger urban environments– but the perennial concern is whether or not we’ll have the on-street bicycle infrastructure like bike lanes, wayfinding, cycletracks and boulevards to really capitalize on the convenience of bike share. Without a concomitant build out, bike share’s impact will be diminished.
@David: Yes. Let’s make this happen in the Seattle region!
[...] Cascade’s John Mauro takes DC’s Capital Bikeshare for a spin [...]