Photo by Mr. T in DC
Capital Bikeshare’s annual members, who pay $75 a year to join the network of big, red, rentable bicycles, enjoy a dose of convenience (and a show of customer loyalty) with the handy keychain fobs. Waving a fob and hopping on a bike is much speedier than pulling out one’s credit card and tapping the keypad for a minute.
But now, Bikeshare is offering key fobs riders who don’t use the service enough to warrant a yearly membership, but want the ability to get on a bike a bit faster. For $10, people can buy a key fob that looks exactly like the ones annual users get, but works a bit differently.
Daily key users can wave their fobs at Bikeshare stations and receive a $7 one-day membership. For people who only use Bikeshare once in a rare while—or tourists who plan ahead—the fob removes the requirement of needing a credit card to hop on a bike. People who have the daily fobs will also be exempted from the $101 deposit Bikeshare charges on one- and three-day users.
The new daily key fobs are available through Bikeshare’s website. The inter-jurisdictional cycling system also hit a milestone last week when it served its four millionth ride.