Photo by nolageek on Flickr.

There’s a new membership option for Capital Bikeshare, beyond the existing $75 for a year, 12 x $7 for a year in installments, $25 for a month, $15 for 3 days and $7 for a day: a “daily key.”

You pay $10 for the key, which is just like the ones annual and monthly members have. When you stick it in the slot, Capital Bikeshare will charge you $7 for a day pass (unless you already got a day pass that day).

I could see getting one myself for out-of-town guests. I want to encourage visitors to use Capital Bikeshare, but signing up for a daily membership on those kiosks can be awkward; there are a lot of screens to get through, and occasionally the screen registers 2 touches at once, which might force you to start over.

Plus, even though for regular members, Capital Bikeshare is primarily about getting between point A and point B quickly, it’s also a great way to show visitors the city. You can ride around for hours from neighborhood to neighborhood, and just have to remember to dock the bike and take another one out every 30 minutes.

What’s annoying about that, however, is that while as an annual member I can just dock my bike, wait a couple of minutes, and take another one with my key, the visitor has to dip his or her credit card, get a new code, and type the code into a dock. (I could give the visitor the key and do this myself, I suppose, but it’s still a pain.) The daily key could dispense with this chore.

Michael Perkins and Rob Pitingolo shared another suggestion on Twitter: a key that gives individual, one-way rides for a lower price, like $2. Michael wrote, “Sometimes I’m with my wife who doesn’t have a key.” She might want to come along for a single trip, but “right now it’s $7, which is pretty steep.”

Rob said, “I’m in the same boat. Wife doesn’t have a key but would pay $2 per ride. $7/day is too high. Example: last mile from Union Station. $2 for that is fair, $7 too high. Currently $7 only option.”

Michael added, “A weekend with activities planned would include our two kids, so no bikeshare possible. However, last mile for getting from church to shopping while kids are in CCD, etc. is more likely need.”

On the other hand, CaBi might be reluctant to offer this for fear that too many people would switch from annual memberships. I don’t know if I ride 35 times a year any more. I started bicycling a lot more once CaBi launched and provided an easy option, but then started riding my own bike instead.

A $75 membership is not that costly for unlimited access to a great service, and there’s value in having members who know they can grab a bike whenever they want instead of people always weighing whether to spend a couple bucks or not. A $2 per trip option might mean CaBi would lose a lot of occasional annual members.

On the other hand, non-members won’t ride at all if there’s no good way to pay for a ride and they don’t want to drop $7 for a whole daily membership. What about a spare key that offers $2 rides, but only in tandem with an annual member? You can only use it on a dock just after the linked annual member takes out a bike; otherwise, it’s a $7 daily pass. Or do you have other ideas?

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.