Almost every neighborhood in DC will see new Capital Bikeshare stations in the next three years. A new expansion plan charts out the locations for 99 new DC stations.

Twenty-one high-traffic stations, all in and around central DC, will also get more docks.

In the plan, the District Department of Transportation and its consultant, Foursquare Integrated Transportation Planning, consider three scenarios for expanding:

  1. Don’t add any stations
  2. Add stations in areas where bikeshare is likely to succeed and which are more than ¼ mile from an existing station, as well as enough stations in the core to meet demand
  3. Add stations so everyone in an area of at least 10,000 people per square mile is within ¼ mile of a station

Scenario 2 means that Capital Bikeshare would need about $1.5-1.8 million in public funds each year, but that amount would stay stable over time. In Scenario 3, the cost would grow from that level up to $6.4 million in Fiscal Year 2021 and possibly more beyond.

Partly because of this, the report recommends a “balanced expansion” closest to option 2 but somewhat larger. That expansion balances new stations in three types of areas:

  • Revenue: Places where Capital Bikeshare gets a lot of money because people take bikes out for long times and pay extra fees (mostly tourist areas)
  • Ridership: Places where Capital Bikeshare stations get a lot of heavy use
  • Access: Places with lower Capital Bikeshare usage but where stations let people access important destinations or ensure more people have the ability to participate in using the system

Many “access” locations are very important and valuable. For example, the report notes that Southern Avenue and Capitol Heights are the only Metrorail stations without a station within a half-mile. (There is also no station within a quarter mile of Federal Triangle). Both stations are actually in Maryland, but immediately adjacent to the DC line.

There are many good reasons to place stations here. Southern Avenue, for instance, is actually very close to THEARC, the terrific arts, entertainment, and education campus in DC’s Ward 8. It’s about a 15 minute walk from Southern Avenue, but bikeshare stations at Southern Avenue, at THEARC, and other locations in the nearby neighborhoods would do a lot to help people reach this important center without driving.

And, in fact, the report shows a station at Southern Avenue and several more in the nearby area as part of the Fiscal Year 2017, the second of three years of expansion.

Other priority “access” areas include Carver-Langston, Alabama Avenue, Buzzard Point, northern Columbia Heights, parts of Petworth and Brightwood, Fort Dupont, and the St. Elizabeth’s campus.

The places with the most opportunity to grow ridership which lack enough stations include 16th Street in Columbia Heights and near Meridian Hill Park, Shaw, eastern Columbia Heights, Southwest Waterfront, and the Stanton Park area of Capitol Hill.

Finally, the “revenue” areas with the most opportunity for growth include the areas around the Capitol, the National Gallery, the Holocaust Museum, the National Shrine and Catholic University, and the large hotels in Woodley Park. Some of these, of course, will require federal cooperation.

This interesting map from the report shows why some areas generate a lot of revenue for Capital Bikeshare:

This map shows the volume of trips between neighborhoods, combining all of the stations in one “cluster” into a single point to show the high-level patterns:

You can also see how often stations have been down for maintenance, and how many trips CaBi has “lost” as a result:

Here’s a map of where trips between neighborhoods tend to favor one direction over another. Not surprisingly, the darkest lines run along large hills (and also popular commuting patterns).

There’s a lot more in the full 143-page report.

What do you think of these decisions? Will you benefit from this expansion?

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.