For fun: design the ultimate SmartBike system

Yesterday, I suggested creating a comprehensive regional or national bike sharing program using a stimulus grant. Between DC and Arlington, the ideal system would have 5,400 bikes. If we included the rest of the walkable and bikeable communities inside the Beltway, let’s say 7,500. DC averages 12 bikes per station, which would mean about 625 stations. (Vélib has 1,450 in an even smaller area). Just for fun, where would we put 625 bike sharing stations?

As a start, I placed a lot of locations in the L’Enfant core, and a few outside. Help me finish the job by locating stations in Upper Northwest, Brightwood, Takoma, River East and more. Where should they go in Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Bethesda, Silver Spring, Hyattsville, College Park, and the other surrounding communities? Which ones should move?

You can edit the map here. To edit, you may have to click on “Save to My Maps” at the top of the left pane. Once it’s added to your My Maps, you can add and move the markers. Please don’t interpret the lack of markers in any area as a recommendation not to have stations there. Instead, add one there!

It’s best to put stations near existing bike lanes or good bike routes, if those exist. Don’t necessarily put one next to your house, but do put one on the commercial strip, recreation center, school or other destination near your house.

Update: Google Maps seems to limit the number of markers it shows on one page. Therefore, if you zoom out on the embedded map, you don’t see all of the markers people added, especially out in the suburbs. Click to view larger map, then go to page 2 at the bottom of the left pane to see the rest. I’m working on figuring out whether it’s possible to display more at once on the embedded map.