May 15, 2008
SmartBike DC to Debut in Early June
Photo by Sommer Mathis
We just ran into District Department of Transportation's Manager for Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Transportation Demand Management Programs, Jim Sebastian, at the corner of R Street and Rhode Island Ave. NW, on his way to a meeting on one of the new SmartBikes we've been eagerly anticipating. Doesn't Jim look sporty? While he was test driving one of the bikes, which have smaller front wheels than standard bikes, Sebastian told us that the nation's first bicycle sharing program, SmartBike DC, should be fully operational in early June.
The subscription form on the SmartBike web site still isn't up and running, but it should be in the next two weeks. Shared bicycles will be available to rent for a $40 annual subscription fee between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., seven days a week. You can find out more about the program over here. Think you'll sign up?
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I won't join because of the tie limit. Three hours is not enough (perhaps 6 or 8 hours would be better)
Pee-Wee Herman would be quite proud.
The handle bars need streamers to make these bikes look a bit less silly. I love the idea, but that is one goofy-ass looking bike,
SmartBike DC should be fully operational in early June.
Hardly. There will only be "ten rental locations with 100 bicycles." In a city of a half-million, with 10 million people in the surrounding suburbs, and 20 million tourists a year? This pilot is not even large enough for proof of concept.
I'm sure it will look dandy on TV, though.
Just in time for rock throwing season!
ABSOLUTELY! No, the system isn't perfect but it will only get better with use. Trial and error, you know? Also, it's imperative to show support for good government, great ideas and burgeoning creativity. Bravo DCDOT!
I love this. I tlooks like you only pay an annual fee and not an hourly rate for the bike as well.
If this is true, you could commute to and from work (if you lived in the city) by bike for $40/yr. Sounds like a great thing to me.
It's a great idea, but could use a few improvements before it will be worth the money to me. First, the 3 hour time limit could be increased, if only by an hour or two. This would seem to be a possibility if more bikes were available. And secondly, more locations should be added. Georgetown and L'Efant Plaza are important locations...at least for me.
ces12 - did you read they have a three hour limit?
Would you be able to pick up a bike near where you live, ride it to work, turn it back in to a location near your work without any problems?
I would love to be able to take them out for rides on the weekends but the three hour limit is too short.
$10 off for zipcar members.
These will be good for short one-way trips between gallery place, dupont, etc.; they aren't meant for 30 mile bike rides.
And the program can only grow.
Umm, does anyone else agree with me that this Jim Sebastian is not too bad to look at? More photo ops with the Manager for Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Transportation Demand Management Programs, please! Yummy!
I won't join. 1) I already have a bike that cost me $50 dollars used, and I can use for however long I want, wherever I want. 2) Those bikes are very silly looking. Why not a normal grown up bike?
If it works for some people, right on. No reason not to do it, but I for one, will just use my own.
A "great idea"? I don't think so. It's an idea, one that probably won't work. Not many people are going to pay money to ride that p.o.s. Plus, the people that would be inclined to ride a bike in this city probabaly already own one of their own. Why would they pay to share one?
In defense of my new favorite DC bureaucrat, perhaps tourists would use this? They certainly might find a use for having a bike, but wouldn't be able to bring one from home. Also, people like me who live in a high-rise apartment building and don't have a good way to store a bike might find use for it. It's possible that I would sign up...
jen209 - look closely... theres a ring on that finger.
Do the bikes come with a smug sense of superiority and skinny jeans? Or is that extra?
I think part of the reason for the silly look of the bike is to help prevent it from being stolen. Who's gonna steal that bike? And if they do, they'll stick out like a sore, stolen thumb (with wheels).
And I second the need for streamers on the handlebars (and the Pee Wee Herman reference made above).
Why would tourists use this? Are they going to pay an annual fee? Plus, are they going to be well informed enough to know of the locations and of the bike sharing program at all? Also, tourists in DC tend to not be the most active of types, where a bike not even cross their minds in terms of a main mode of transport.
Looks similar to this one in Spain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicing
By the way, this isn't the "nation's first bike sharing program." It’s just the first “self-service public bike rental program.” Other cities, such as Portland, Oregon, have tried other variations of bike sharing programs. (The difference is the bikes were free to use.) Most of these programs failed as they were plagued by theft. I guess it's good that DC has designed a bike no one would ever want to pinch.
If the sniping is about the look of the bike, grow up! These are utility bikes, not long-distance touring rigs or tricked-out racers (go to Bike The Sites for either).
Jeez - is the hipster crowd here in DC that superficial? Lemme tell 'ya: everybody around here has seen the requisite overpriced American Apparel one-size-too-small and H&M built-to-last a wearing outfit of the week.
And while the SmartBike bicycles look a bit different than a $4,000 Trek Madone SL, they're also built to withstand the rigors of living in a city strewn with potholes and crappy street-to-driveway merges (similar units in Paris, France, get high marks for their utility and durability). They'll likely outlast the AA and H&M blink-and-its-out-of-style look that's all the rage at Bourbon on a hungover Sunday morning.
I would really like to see this succeed... my main concern with it, though, is that all the locations are so close together that it's almost pointless. I live right near the Shaw location, so it seems like it would be very useful... but then I realize that I would generally walk to almost any of those locations, with the possible exception of Foggy Bottom. (Since you can only keep the bike for 3 hours, and also since you probably don't want to deal with locking the bike up yourself, it seems most useful for travelling from one location to another.)
If there were a couple of locations at farther out points of interest (Columbia Heights, Woodley Park, Georgetown, Tenleytown, Capitol Hill), I would be much more likely to use it.
the Bicing Barcelona program was run by the same people as SmartBike (Clear Channel Outdoor), so it should someday be just as successful. I'm waiting until there's a station in Georgetown, because that's where I'll use it, but once they put one there it'll be very useful because I'm sick of waiting around for buses or crossing over to Virginia to get anywhere in D.C.
This is weird. I've never heard of anyone who enjoys riding a bike/rides a bike with any frequency, etc. who doesn't own a bike. It's not like car ownership.
He's kinda cute. Details please.
"These will be good for short one-way trips between gallery place, dupont, etc.; they aren't meant for 30 mile bike rides."
I agree that they're intended for short one-way trips, but these bikes are actually too close together to be that useful. Dupont or U Street to Gallery Place, or maybe from some of those places to Foggy Bottom, are the only trips you could make on these bikes that would be worth it. Too many of the others are so close together that it'll be easier to just plan on walking.
I'll probably sign up, but if they don't expand to more locations pretty quickly, I could see this dying a quick death.
Why not start with at least 1,000 bikes? Are there extra parking slots in business districts, where people will be riding in the mornings? Are trucks ready to haul bikes back to residential areas at night, because many people will not ride back in the evenings? These are all issues worked out by the Paris Vélib system. Why re-invent the (bike) wheel?
"This is weird. I've never heard of anyone who enjoys riding a bike/rides a bike with any frequency, etc. who doesn't own a bike. It's not like car ownership."
This isn't like Zipcar -- the point isn't to replace your bike with bike sharing. I own a bike, but I hate having to deal with locking it up and worrying about theft and whatnot. This is just another option to get you from point A to point B without worrying about what you do with the bike when you get there. I won't ride my own bike to a show at the Lisner, but I would hop on one of these bikes to get there, knowing that I could drop off the bike just a couple of blocks from my destination.
Again, I love the concept, but I fear the execution here is too timid. Paris launched their program with 10,600 bikes and 750 locations. It was incredibly convenient from the beginning. 10 stations and 100 bikes? I want it to succeed, but I'm not optimistic.
I'll be signing up. Convenient for quick trips, or as a spare when a friend is in town. And if we want more bikes at more locations, the best thing we can do is sign up. Demand, people.
On the looks of the bike - surely those complaining are not the same people who lust after powder coated Pista fixies with cut down bars? Because you know how douchey those are, right?
Logan Resident - buy your own bike. This is hardly a program to provide you with a daily commute to work.
@Logan Resident -
Straight from the website:
:Returning a Bike
Go to any bike station"
You dont have to return it to the one you got it from. Definitely work commutable.
WTF is IMgoph when this s**t is comin down? He's the bike mastah!
Just yesterday on Kojo Nnamdi Jim was saying late May. This is disconcerting.
What the heck do you need the bike for longer than 3 hours for. The stations are so close together that it'd only take you 10 minutes to get from one to the farthest away. In Paris the average rental is 18 minutes.
I see this being used at lunch hour (to get to lunch or run errands) or after work to get to a happy hour or restaurant or late at night for some bar hopping. Not for commuting or tourists.
Am I the only Flickr group person that thinks this would be awesome for shooting on the weekends? 3 hours is good, plus you can just dock the bike and take another for another 3 if you need to!
oh thank god. i thouht i was the only one who thought they looked terrible. like they ripped them off from the ringling brothers clowns when they were in town.
i understand the "not even deebo from friday would steal that bike" theory, but really. where is their marketing person? there has to be an anti-theft plan that doesn't involve humiliation of the buyer.
and whoa - nicely done mrs. sebastien.
They really should consider hooking up with an automated restroom vendor and offer a SmartShower so I don't stink up the place when I drop the bike off. Hai Karate can only take care of so much crotch funk.
The bikes don't look any less dorky than the Dahon folder I used to use when I worked in the circus. I coulda lived without the fez, though.
I can only consider this bike service for weekend trips since I work outside the city and have no choice but to drive.
I did own my own brand new bike when I moved here. It did not last three months. It was stolen right out of our underground garage and they apparently had no trouble cutting through a very expensive lock to take it ... so I will never buy/keep another bike in this city!
@songfta:
That is the oddest tirade I've seen on DCist in a long time. Do H&M and American Apparel now sell bikes?
Yep, Jim Sebastian's a hottie. He totally could compete with dreamboat Dan Tangherlini for the cover of the 2009 "Hunks of District Government" calendar.
I know nothing about bikes, so I don't lust after any fancy foo foo tour de France wannabe. The only bikes I like are cruisers, because I think there is less that can go wrong with them and they are sturdy. But seriously -- these are silly looking. I'm surprised someone hasn't gone for the moped/sex joke yet.
This is weird. I've never heard of anyone who enjoys riding a bike/rides a bike with any frequency, etc. who doesn't own a bike.
One thing to consider is that you can't take your own bike on Metro during commuting hours. So if you live too far away to bike all the way into the city, and your job is not easy walking distance from a Metro stop, this program could let you "bike to work" from Metro.
Or if you find yourself downtown and feel like going to Georgetown, Adams Morgan, etc.
I don't think it's aimed primarily at those who live in the center of the city; more at suburbanites, to extend the virtual reach of Metro.
What I don't get is why the tiny wheels? I understand making them "unaesthetic," but why make them less functional?
I can see it being useful for some people. I would consider taking the metro to work, but my job is pretty far from the metro stop and the walk adds an extra 30 minutes to the commute. Being able to bike from the metro to my job would make the commute a lot shorter, but I wouldn't want to keep my own bike locked up in SE exclusively for that purpose.
Hopefully this takes off, because it would be very helpful to see it expanded throughout the city and possibly into the 'burbs.
I would love to see bikes show up at ends of the metro line, and possibly have stations at some of the bus transfer points and/or carpool areas.
Or, for that matter, it'd be nice to snatch a bike on the weekend and get around the city easier.
~EEE~
sorry to let you down on this one, monkey. last week i was too busy for even dcist. i've failed you all...