Arlington, DC announce 1,100-bike regional bike sharing

Bicycling

Arlington, DC announce 1,100-bike regional bike sharing

by David Alpert • May 21, 2010 8:38 am

A new bike sharing system based on Montreal's Bixi will have 1,100 bikes spanning 100 stations in DC and 14 in Arlington, replacing DC's existing SmartBike system, leaders announced this morning,

Bixi in Montreal. Flickr photo by solylunafamilia.

This expansion has been widely rumored for months, since Cyberpresse reported a deal was in the works. U.S. company Alta Bicycle Share will actually operate the system and employ the staff. The system should launch in the fall.

Clear Channel created the original SmartBike system as part of a contract to run advertising on DC bus shelters, but that relationship ran into trouble because Clear Channel was not interested in an arrangement where local governments would pay directly for system expansions. They were only running it to grow their core business of outdoor advertising.

The new system will allow a wider range of membership opportunities. Annual memberships will cost $80, double the current SmartBike rate of $40, though for a much better service. People can also purchase monthly memberships for $30 or daily ones for $5. All memberships allow unlimited bike rentals, free for the first 30 minutes with usage fees (levels not yet specified) after 30 minutes.

The exact locations haven't been released yet, but Arlington is concentrating theirs in the Pentagon City/Crystal City/Potomac Yard area (the Blue and Yellow Line corridor). The Crystal City BID helped pay for this portion.

Focusing on one area will also allow for a sufficient density of stations to maximize ridership. Bike sharing is best for short trips rather than very long ones, especially since the bikes are designed for comfortable shorter rides rather than longer, higher-speed ones. Arlington hopes to next add the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.

Hopefully the Park Service will allow a number of bike stations on the Mall. With poor transportation around much of the Mall, bike sharing could be a perfect way to help many people bridge the gaps if there could be stations at most major attractions (so they can return the bikes quickly upon reaching a desired memorial).

Mall stations are also close to Arlington, and a connected bike share system could let someone ride, for example, from Crystal City to Arlington Cemetery, drop off the bike, see the cemetery, pick up another bike to go to the FDR memorial, drop the bike off, get another to go to downtown DC, and so on.

Last year, we made a map together of potential locations for the new bike sharing.

The system won't be called SmartBike, which is a Clear Channel brand name. DC and Arlington have created a survey to help select among names including WeCycle, UCycle, Capital Bixi, ZoomBike, Velo2Go, Bike Around, Bikington, and more.

The stations cost about $35,000 for a small station (7 bikes and 11 docking spaces), up to $52,000 for a large 13-bike, 19-dock station. The operating cost will be $155 per bike not counting memberships; the membership revenue DC and Arlington get will go to offset each jurisdiction's contribution to operating costs.

It's great that jurisdictions were able to cooperate to create this regional system. Arlington has always been a national leader in Smart Growth and sustainable practices, and County Board members Jay Fisette and Chris Zimmerman provided strong leadership for this project. DDOT under Gabe Klein is quickly implementing some of the most cutting-edge transportation ideas. Together, the system can be better than either's alone.

When Arlington was first exploring bike sharing over a year ago, I worried about the proliferation of incompatible bike sharing systems. In the case of bike sharing, the whole is definitely greater than the parts. With this system, run by companies interested in expanding it rather than just getting ad revenue, it should be able to grow to more jurisdictions in the region, and perhaps local universities or other organizations (USDOT?) can sponsor their own stations.

BeyondDC tweeted from Wednesday's TPB meeting that they're likely to re-submit the regional bike sharing system in the original TIGER grant application for the second round of TIGER funding.

A TIGER grant could boost this system from a nice start to a real showcase of what bike sharing can do for a metropolitan area. 114 stations is fantastic, but if we wanted to match Paris's Vélib's density of bike sharing, DC and Arlington should have 5,400 bikes. The original TIGER application asked for 2,250 bikes at 225 stations in DC, Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax City, Bethesda, Silver Spring, College Park, Hyattsville, and National Harbor, in addition to the 1,000 the District is already funding and announced today.

17 comments — Share	— tags: Arlington, bicycling, bike sharing, DC, DDOT, NPS, stimulus, The Mall

Regional plan recommends regional bike sharing but disjointed bus improvements (Jul 13, 2009)
Bike news (Jul 3, 2009)
SmartBike: Do it right for the long term (Jun 22, 2009)
Let's stimulate with a major bike sharing program (Mar 6, 2009)
How can we make bike sharing programs compatible? (Jan 13, 2009)

Comments

This is awesome. I've been waiting so long for them to announce the bike expansion. I rarely use my SmartBike membership because it really doesn't allow you to get too far because the bike stations just aren't in enough places.

by inlogan on May 21, 2010 8:52 am

Very nice.

My understanding of the TIGER application for bikesharing in the last round was that the idea was well received, but wasn't quite ready to roll out. This time around, with Arlington and DC in the lead, we're well on our way. Also, the smaller pot of money might help out a relatively modest TIGER II application for expanding the Bikesharing system.

by Alex B. on May 21, 2010 9:14 am

Is there a map (or list) of potential bike stations? Can someone make a desired list if not?

by Shipsa01 on May 21, 2010 9:30 am

We actually played with that last year. Here's the collaborative map we made. (Note that due to annoying Google My Maps pagination behavior, not all the markers show up on the embedded map.)

by David Alpert on May 21, 2010 9:56 am

If this the same as Bixi, then it should be using the same bikes as Paris, which are about 10X nicer than the clear channel bikes.

Now, you just have to intergrate your smartrip with your bike membership card!

by charlie on May 21, 2010 9:57 am

Ah, that map is great. Though I think it shows 625 stations, no? And you say that we're going to get only (ha) about 100. So maybe we should do some updating.

And great idea about integrating it into the Smartrip system. That would be ideal.

by Shipsa01 on May 21, 2010 10:03 am

@Shipsa01,

The great part about Bixi (as opposed to SmartBike) is that Bixi is both scalable and very easy to install. Solar power means no electrical hookups are needed, the wireless communication means that no data hookups are needed, either. Adding stations is relatively cheap and easy.

by Alex B. on May 21, 2010 10:07 am

Saweeet.

by Reid on May 21, 2010 10:12 am

One important fact is missing: When? How long until I can hop on one of these new bikes?

by Scott F on May 21, 2010 10:20 am

Any stations in N Arlington along the orange line?

and +1 to the "normal" looking bikes

by Ballston123 on May 21, 2010 12:08 pm

Awesoome. Can't wait to see this in action.

by Rob on May 21, 2010 12:24 pm

I don't actually have a better suggestion, but those names are uniformly awful.

by jcm on May 21, 2010 12:37 pm

Yay, Bixi is fantastic! (And, it's tourist-friendly - hopefully that aspect of the system will also be coming to DC.)

by Erica on May 21, 2010 12:49 pm

@Ballston123 Bike share stations won't be coming to the R-B Corridor until 2011. In order for the system to work the stations really need to be every 2-3 blocks and that would have spread Arlington's initial funding too thin. Because the Crystal City BID chipped in http://www.commuterpageblog.com/2010/05/its-official-dc-and-arlington-go-all-european.html Arlington concentrated its stations in the Crystal City and Pentagon City area for the start of the program this fall. How fast the R-B Corridor and then the rest of the County is covered will also depend on funding.

by Chris Hamilton on May 21, 2010 1:32 pm

It's a pity Alexandria isn't joining in (it was part of the TIGER request). Since Arlington is starting with Pentagon City and Crystal City along the Yellow/Blue line, it would be natural to extend along the Metro line into northeastern Alexandria.

by jim on May 21, 2010 2:29 pm

This is great news. Bixi is a lot of fun and very well-done for such a young system. Especially great news is the $5 daily pass.

In honor of Arlington's southern heritage, I propose we name the new system Dixi.

by Gavin on May 21, 2010 2:45 pm

In 1996 I was working with Portsmouth on the first UK system to use automated dispensing of bikes to an audience of registered users, although in Japan there were already systems - reported in outline by Michael Replogle in his report Bicycles with Public Transport (the basis of FHwA Case Study No 9 (1994).

One thing that this scheme seems to be missing is the link between this system and other provision for Public Transport. In Germany, and Netherlands, and with major French conglomerates the bike share systems, and car share systems are part of the product portfolio of a Public Transport operation. Thus the PT operator can sell a product that genuinely delivers an equivalent - or even a better deal - than the private car

In the UK a commuter driving to the metro station and going onward on foot or by bus/second metro can save around 30 minutes on their total journey time in each direction. As a result, when a clear gain such as this has become apparent we have seen increases in cycle use of over 1000% in a couple of months. The closure of one short section of Metro line for 6 months of renovation has delivered the equivalent of 2 train loads of passengers converting to cycling, and continuing to ride this part of their journey when the line reopened.

It is interesting to see that an annual subscription is now considered appropriate - OV Fiets (NS), Veolia (operating in Chicago) Clear Channel's operation in Barcelona and the UK Group Stagecoach all offer their cycles as Transit for an annual fee and you either keep the bike all the time or collect from an automated hire point.

Thus the hole in this at present is that it is not integrated with the WMATA Transit product - aside from where the station is actually part of the destination, every passenger using transit buys an incomplete product - ("batteries not included") as no transit service can viably offer everyone a door to door journey. Transit plus bike can deliver this.

The other buy-in for the system has to be from big institutions who are committed to TDM - compare the cost of some automated bike lockers (the solution for OV-Fiets) and a Bixi station to the construction (and land) costs for a multi-storey parking garage for 7 cars - basically delivery of cycle sharing (and car sharing) as public transit is a no=brainer.

The established US deal to take bikes on buses (over 70% of US bus fleet) may also mitigate the cost of bike redistribution as credits or payments can be offered for those who are willing to reposition bikes.

by Dave Holladay on May 22, 2010 3:59 am