Photo by Mr. T in DC

Last week, Washington Times columnist Charles Hurt made quite the splash by calling Capital Bikeshare “broken-down socialism.” Today we admit that he might have been right.

A few Bikeshare users—including DCist’s own former editor-in-chief, Aaron Morrissey—complained this morning that every bike at their closest station was gone. This isn’t an isolated complaint, of course—plenty of stations see heavy use during rush hour, notably along popular commuting routes.

In a sense, the quasi-socialism of Capital Bikeshare fails in this respect. Weirdly enough, though, it fails in a very capitalistic way: the bikes operate based on supply and demand, with the most sought-after bikes going most quickly. The only response is for Bikeshare to move bikes back to the most-used locations as quickly as possible, or simply expand capacity to meet demand. In essence, we need more socialism to make the system work—not less.

In related news, it looks like former MTV VJ and Reason magazine’s Kennedy is working on some sort of expose on how Capital Bikeshare is a waste of federal tax dollars. (It won’t be the first time the libertarian-leaning magazine has taken aim at bike-sharing.)