Capital Bikeshare - Very Cool DC Bike Sharing Program
OK, I don't really know how cool it is because I only just saw it for the first time last night and I haven't tried it. But it looks cool, and it has a cool website, and I want it to be successful. It's called Capital Bikeshare.
Here's the station across the street from our hotel. For $75 a year you can check out a bike any time. You have 30 free minutes to get to another station. Over 30 minutes and they charge you $1.50 and it gets higher the longer you keep it. The idea is to encourage short rides so that as many bikes are available as possible at any given time.
I know I cut off the prices - $5 for a day and $15 for five days.
There are 110 stations in DC and Arlington with 1100 bikes.
The website shows all the stations and you can click on a station and see how many bikes and empty slots are available at any given time - so you can plan where to get or drop off a bike. You can read the blog in 42 different languages, like Hungarian for Ropi or Spanish for Tomás, though they cold do fine with the English.
It is a good idea, but I think the Viennese solution is still better. There is a fee for renting the bike, but there is a dynamo on the bike and the electricity produced reduce the fee. I think the Austrian solution is excellent. I absolutely loved it.
I think there was a program like this in Budapest but the bicycles were stolen.
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It is a good idea, but I think the Viennese solution is still better. There is a fee for renting the bike, but there is a dynamo on the bike and the electricity produced reduce the fee. I think the Austrian solution is excellent. I absolutely loved it.
ReplyDeleteI think there was a program like this in Budapest but the bicycles were stolen.
There is also a program like this in Montreal. It's called "Bixie" and is very popular, and as far as I know, successful.
ReplyDeleteRopi, how is the electricity collected?
ReplyDeleteSarena, have you used a Bixie bike?
I understand NY City is also looking into this.