April 8, 2008
Bike Sharing Programs to Abound in D.C.
Both the Bike Sharing Blog and some of our Flickr contributors have spotted several of the SmartBikeDC racks being erected around town in the last week. The city's first bike sharing company, which we first told you about last year, is expected to be in full gear in May, with a soft launch rumored by the end of this month. The list of planned bike rental locations can be found here. The rack pictured is in front of the Reeves Center at 14th and U Streets NW.
In other excellent bike sharing news, Via Richard Layman, the U.S. House of Representatives has issued a request for proposals to begin a bike sharing program on Capitol Hill. The contract announcement seeks a company able to provide a means to make 30 shared bicycles available to House members and staff.
This is a very good thing. As Layman rightly notes, because many Hill staffers get free parking, far too many of them have an incentive to drive to work, even if they live relatively close by. Creating more incentives for government employees to bike to their offices, or to meetings downtown during the day, can only serve to improve congestion in the city. Even if it's baby steps, we welcome the House's effort and initiative here.
Photo by ericgundersen
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These are identical to the ones they have in Barcelona-they're quite neat, the only problem is finding a place to park them when you get where you want to go. Several of the Barcelona stations were completely full and people would wait for a few minutes or longer to be able to park their bike-if staffers use these things they'll quickly get a reputation for being unreliable and there being no place to leave them and the concept will be shot-hopefully there'll be enough stations and parking...
Re: trying to get the Hill staff to commute in a more environmentally friendly manner, maybe they should, oh I dunno, take away those parking spaces. Seems to me like that might make them consider carpooling/Metro-ing or even bike-sharing.
Hopefully they put a station in at L'Enfant as well. My job has me going back and forth between there and Gallery Place quite often, and this would be perfect!
Before you start more flames on House employees. Even though it appears parking is _free_ it is not. It is considered a taxable benefit. Therefore, the House charges this benefit back to your paycheck at the average going rate of monthly parking as taxable income on your paycheck. So it's not really "free" as opposed to the Federal Transit program that will reimburse your up to $115 for transit at absolutely no cost to the employee. So House employee have a much bigger incentive to take Transit as opposed to parking their car.
if there's such an incentive to take transit, why are those parking lots full, and why do they exist in such size at all?
fact is, they induce driving on the part of those who work there, they're not an efficient use of space, they're not environmentally friendly, and they detract from the look of the area.
down with the parking lots!
Many thanks to Dick Layman for making this happen.
There is a waiting lists for those spots and I know on the House side the transit commuters outnumber the drviers. If I had the option to drive and park I would not do it, the train is easier and you dont have to worry about traffic. On the flip side there are some days I feel like going postal at Metro Center.
hey HCE, you have a problem with mr. layman?
he doesn't go by dick, so i'm going to assume you mean to be derogatory. that's cute. makes you look like a big-time ass.
I think he was attempting to be funny with Dick and Lay or he was being a Dick himself....
I mean, it is sort of a funny name when you say it like that.
Redline: Paris reported similar problems with lack of spaces in business areas at morning rush and rebuilt accordingly. There is also a dirty little secret: trucks re-distribute Parisian bikes at night to meet morning demands.
Reeves Center seems a suprisingly intelligent place to put these: Metro to U Street, bike to Dupont/Adams Morgan, get wasted, bike back, Metro home.
If I had a top hat, I'd doff it to SmartBike. Would you settle for a propeller beanie?
It was meant as a compliment. Fuck you.
And last time I checked, he capitalizes both the Mr. and the Layman.
hey, fuck yourself buddy. i stated a fact, it made you look like an ass. what's your name? let's say it's michael johnson. so i'm going to refer to you as taint johnson. oh, but don't worry, i meant it as a compliment. sheesh.
i don't capitalize anything. sorry.
People seem to be a little on edge today. What gives?
Looks like IMGoph doesn't know Dick.
Both my Dad and best friend's first names are Richard and people call them both Dick. It is a very common nickname for Richard; kind of like Bob for Robert. I don't see what the big deal is.
I tried looking, I could not find out any info on who owns the same service in Barcelona? It is a great service there and I have been jealous ever since using it. They are so far left over the dorky meter that they almost loop back around into acceptably stylish.
Does anyone know if Clear Channel owns them too?
I know this has been talked to death, but any concern that Clear Channel owns our: bus stations, walls, signs, air, and now our city bikes?
Great, more people on the road to run red lights, burn stop signs, cut off drivers, and block car lanes, all the while giving us the finger for daring to go around them.
As a DC-ite (-ist?) currently living in Barcelona, I'm thrilled to see that this is heading to DC. As a few peeps mention above, we have had Bicing (www.bicing.com) here in Barcelona for a little more than a year now. From the foto in the post, this looks to be identical to the Bicing setup. While not perfect, it is hands down one of the best alternatives to urban people moving I've seen. I use Bicing almost every day and constantly sing its praises--environmental sensitivity, promotes exercise, extends public transport, and tremendously convenient. One issue that concerns me is that it does encourage riding without a helmet on packed and chaotic urban streets. I wonder if that's something that will be taken into consideration in DC...
BTW, stmove, sorry to say, but Clear Channel is tagged on the bikes here as well.
http://www.bicing.com/pfw_files/cma/modulos/bicis2.bmp
I was wondering what the hell that was...I'm actually impressed!