August 5, 2008
SmartBike DC Open for Business
After a bit of a wait, District residents can finally sign up for SmartBike DC memberships online. The city's pilot bicycle sharing program is already being used by a small number of beta testers, and $40 annual subscriptions are now for sale, according to DDOT's Manager for Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Transportation Demand Management Programs, Jim Sebastian.
It takes at least a couple of weeks to process memberships, so if you sign up today, you can be one of the first people to try out the new program.
A limited number of bicycles are already out at seven of the ten SmartBike rack locations. Three racks, however, at Metro Center, McPherson Square, and Judiciary Square, are still not finished, according to Sebastian.
Flickr user erin*carly sent us this capture from the Farragut Square SmartBike rack this morning.
If you sign up, be sure to let us know what your experience is like.
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There are no locations east of Judiciary Square. I guess no one would ever want to ride a bike to Union Station, Capitol Hill, a DC United Game, H Street, or even, dare I say...east of the river...
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This service would be so much cooler if they offered Pee Wee Herman's Schwinn cruiser as the standard ride.
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One of those pretty orange bikes will be seen crushed under a truck in three...two...
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hillvada: They are starting in the densest areas for good reason. Its my understanding that they'll be putting out more stations as these first ones prove successful.
It WOULD be brilliant to be able to ride downtown for a hockey game or through the hill for a DC United Game.
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these bikes scream 'vandalize me'
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A replacement fee of $250 will be invoiced in case a bike is not returned within 24 hours after rental.
so if you just want to buy one of the gayest looking bikes ever, it'll only set you back $250 plus the $40 membership fee.
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I'd be curious about what their liability looks like as they're not providing helmets, and you'd have to assume that most of the folks riding these wouldn't have any...
Then again, I suppose providing helmets is a dangerous game to into as well.
Buy helmets, and use them, SmartBikers.
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Do they come with locks? If not, I give it two weeks until most of the bikes are "lost" or stolen.
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I think it's too bad they didn't include Georgetown or Union Station in the initial roll-out. I know they plan to put one in Georgetown on Wisconsin just south of M, and that they have big plans for a bike station at Union Station, but it's too bad those two locations are not online right off the bat.
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This is BYOHelmet and BYOLock? If you already own a helmet and lock, chances are you've got a bicycle that already fits you, has more than one gear, doesn't have a ridiculous fender, and doesn't weigh 40 pounds.
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I do not envision good things for this program...vandalized bikes/stations, injuries and lawsuits, public humiliation usually reserved for Segway groups, Smartbikers on sidewalks, and at least one blog devoted to pictures of Smartbikes in illegal/immoral/NSFW situations...
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Section 2.6 of the rental agreement - Bikes must be returned in 3 hours?
Nice enough to grab a bite to eat or a few shops, but not very good for commuting.
Either way, I'm expecting a drunken bike crash sooner rather than later.
Look out for aging or infirm politicians!
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There's been a similar program in place in DC for years; the only difference was that you had to get the bike at night, and you had to use bolt cutters instead of a $40 annual fee.
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I am excited!
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I signed up last week. I can't wait to get my card. I think a lot of people are missing the point of this. It's designed for short, quick trips. If I need to go to the doctor in Foggy Bottom from my place in Logan Circle, instead of taking the bus I can go to the station at 14th and Rhode Island and check out a bike and ride it to Foggy Bottom. I can put it back in the rack there instead of having to lock it up. Once I am done with the doctor I can pick up a new bike at the rack and ride back to Logan Circle. There will be a lot more stations around the city if this catches on. I don't think commuting would work too well though because what happens when all the people out in the fringes ride downtown at 8am and try to find an exmpty slot to return the bike?
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So what do you do if the racks are full? Say you live in the West End, it's a long ways away from another rack making the service moot. There are going to be a few racks that are going to be over utilized and few that are going to be underutilized. I hope they plan on following up on this and adjusting accordingly.
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I love the idea, but the implementation here is just too pathetic. There aren't enough stations, there aren't enough bikes, and the stations are simultaneously too close together (so that you would rarely commute from the location of one station to another) and too far apart (so that if you get to your destination and the rack is full, you'll have to walk pretty far to get back from whatever station had an open spot). Paris launched their program with something like 2,000 bikes (rather than the 100 we've got here), and in most parts of the city you're never more than a few blocks away from a station.
I'm curious how many spots there are at each station. If there are ten spots and ten bikes, the program starts with a big fail because there's automatically going to be too few open spots at certain times of the day. (Like in the morning, when people from U Street all want to ride a bike downtown). There needs to be significantly more parking spots than there are bikes for this to even have a chance at being useful. And they need to start expanding it immediately rather than waiting for some long test period to go by.
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Did anybody else notice the logo on the top left corner of the SmartBike site? CLEAR CHANNEL. I love it and I hate it at the same time.
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I am going to the CVS on Connecticut for some clothepins and playing cards to trick out the spokes on these bad boys. Who's with me?
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They'll be sorry when DumbBike DC comes to town. Picture lots of bears in tutus, midget clowns, and chainsaw jugglers on unicycles. Benning Heights has enver laughed so much. Not since they shot The Stinkerman. R.I.P. Stink! We loves you, boo!
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Are SmartBikes always available for rental?
No. Bikes are limited and may not always be available for rental. Occasionally, a bike station will fill up or empty out. Should you find a full or empty bike station, please locate an alternative bike station. Do not leave the bike unsecured.
Oh yeah... this is going to work well... /sarcasm
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You would never have this problem with DumbBike DC. Simply return your bike to the closest liquor store in exchange for a forty of Steel Reserve and a package of pina colada blunts. Or, barring that, park it in front of Robert Novak's moving Vette, preferrably while he's stroking out. We guarantee to cover part of your hospital costs in exchange for a percentage of the lawsuit money!*
*Warning. Not a guarantee.
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I'm with you Bethesdaist! I'm gonna put spoke beads on mine!
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I can't believe this program is run by Clear Channel.
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Ooooh, spoke beads! Maybe we can get an arts grant to pimp out all the bikes, yee hah!
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Definitely need to thug out that ride if they want to make it in DC. They can start by raising those handlebars about two feet, attaching a woven basket with a daisy on it, retrofit a long banana seat, and giving each one a Hardy Boys lunchbox featuring Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy.
Also, you can't go wrong with an electronic horn that plays "La Cucaracha," "Tequila," and "Little Spanish Flea."
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Nah, ME. With Clear Channel at the helm, the only thing those horns are playing is Coldplay.
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Holy crap, they're called 'Spokey Dokeys' people, not 'spoke beads'.
I think these bikes are kinda cute though. Yes, they may be stolen and vandalized and occasionally there may not be one when you need it, but that's life in the big city. Deal.
This is a really cool and innovative program and if it can work in a ton of European cities like Barcelona, Oslo, Stockholm & Paris then the only reason it won't work here will be because Americans are to stupid, destructive, lazy or some combination thereof to allow it to work.
Oh, and "spoke beads" on SmartBikes? It's apparently been done.
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As a stickler for bike safety I think it's absolutely ludicrous that they are renting these bikes without the option of renting helmets as well. No helmets? What the hell?