The problem isn't the hold; it is how long it takes your money to be restored AFTER the hold on debit cards.

by charlie on May 2, 2012 9:12 am • link • report

er yes, the credit card hold IS the problem if you have a debit card with no credit feature. Like for example if you lost your card and your bank gave you a temporary debit only card, and still hasn't sent you a new regular card. And you go to use CaBi for the first time, unaware of the credit card hold issue. Leading you to emit a stream of expletives that would violate the comment policy.

by MyBankisStupid on May 2, 2012 9:16 am • link • report

Does anyone know if these new bikeshare systems will connect with Capital Bikeshare? Or at the very least allow users the ability to use both systems.

For instance a bikeshare in Baltimore wouldnt necessarily need to connect with DC bikeshare but it would seem that programs in College Park or Montgomery County would be exponentially successful and attract many more users if they werent there own completely separate system.

by Ryan S. on May 2, 2012 9:59 am • link • report

3 top officials, including Richard Sarles, no longer have WMATA issued cars, opting to give them up to the vehicle pool.

Hear hear. They're in charge of a transit system, that should get them anywhere they want.

Now they need to start cracking down on the 116 others that have a take-home car. I bet that the motivation for at least 1/3 of those is very flimsy.

by Jasper on May 2, 2012 10:11 am • link • report

College Park and Montgomery County should definitely just join Capital Bikeshare instead of creating their own systems. I think it would be a good idea the Baltimore system was able to link somehow to DC as well.
Alta Bicycle Share, Inc. runs the system here as well as in Boston and the soon to come NYC system. I think some kind of all access membership would be great if they could pull it off.
And on the subject of interlinked transit systems, I think its high time we figured out some sort of E-ZPass equivalent for all public transportation systems in the north east corridor. I know it would require a major change in payment systems for most of the networks but I think it would be worthwhile in the long run.

by Hawkeye on May 2, 2012 10:28 am • link • report

@Hawkeye -- IIRC, Baltimore is going with B-Cycle (a la Denver/Boulder) rather than Alta/Bixi, so there's no chance of reciprocity there.

But I agree that it would be great to have some kind of agreement with NYC and Chicago. I don't even need access to free rides, but just being able to use the keyfob and be charged a "visitors-rate", with a usage fee automatically billed to my CaBi account would be wonderful.

by Jacques on May 2, 2012 10:33 am • link • report

@Jasper

I frequently see Mr. Sarles taking the Metro during the evening rush, so I'm not sure why he had a car to begin with, since it seems he lives close to a Metro station and uses it regularly.

by Teyo on May 2, 2012 11:20 am • link • report

It should be possible for Alta to collect payments across jurisdictions, but those jurisdictions would need to execute revenue-sharing agreements with one another. Right now, for instance, Arlington & DC have agreed that the city where the trip begins captures the revenue for the whole trip. It wouldn't be difficult, but it might be time-consuming, to set up a bunch of bilateral agreements (or a common agreement) along such lines -- and to agree on a fee structure, since daily-use fees are so lucrative. Then again, it could also be a marketing tool for Alta.

MoCo is already part of the CaBi compact, since stations will be arriving in Rockville later this year, and they have committed to CaBi for their inside-the-Beltway expansion. Not sure about College Park yet.

@Hawkeye: most major systems are currently moving towards an "open payments" model that will probably coexist with your existing RFID-enabled credit cards.

by Payton on May 2, 2012 12:37 pm • link • report

Speaking of credit cards, the time it takes to restore the deposits is entirely on the credit card networks. Getting any refund takes a few days -- just as it takes a few days for any electronic fund transfer.

by Payton on May 2, 2012 12:39 pm • link • report

So...where did the post about car2go insurance go? Was it removed because its primary point was incorrect?

by Gray on May 2, 2012 12:52 pm • link • report

I'd like to see the car2go post come back. I don't think the primary point was incorrect in that people using these cars without their own insurance policy are-at least according to my reading of the terms- taking a massive gamble because of the limited nature of the insurance provided. The same is true for Connect by Hertz.

by renegade09 on May 2, 2012 2:42 pm • link • report

@Gray: I don't know why they took it off the main page (the links no longer work either), but I was able to see the following after a RSS search.

Rob posted some concerns about the insurance coverage from car2go, but some commenters pointed out information we may have missed (and which car2go failed to explain in multiple discussions with Rob). We've therefore taken this post down for now and will follow up later with more information as we are able to collect it.

by selxic on May 2, 2012 2:43 pm • link • report

A diverging diamond at the end of Arundel Mills Blvd actually makes sense. The road ends at MD295, and there's no development beyond it; the CMRT Route J bus actually takes 295 down to Laurel. The intersection before it has all the foot traffic, because there's a hotel, a small set of shops (including Five Guys and Starbucks), and several sets of apartments along the connecting roads.

If the developers ever connect Clark Road to the new street, CMRT can easy reroute the J down it and get on MD295 from MD175.

by STrRedWolf on May 3, 2012 8:24 pm • link • report

The bikeshare system in College Park will be an expansion of the existing Capital Bikeshare in DC and Arlington: http://patch.com/A-sTrP

by Shannon Hoffman on May 7, 2012 10:26 am • link • report