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Sunday, September 04, 2011

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.

Here's their video explaining how it works.




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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousSunday, September 4, 2011 at 8:29:00 AM AKDT

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rena H.Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 2:40:00 PM AKDT

    There is also a program like this in Montreal. It's called "Bixie" and is very popular, and as far as I know, successful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SteveTuesday, September 27, 2011 at 3:32:00 PM AKDT

    Ropi, how is the electricity collected?

    Sarena, have you used a Bixie bike?

    I understand NY City is also looking into this.

    ReplyDelete

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