Wednesday, September 25, 2013

MetroBike Update on Capital Bikeshare

Today I have two Capital Bikeshare items to note and I'll begin with a little shameless marketing. First, MetroBike is assisting Montgomery County, Maryland (USA) with station site planning and implementation of their first 51 stations, which will be part of the regional Capital Bikeshare service. MetroBike has been working rapidly to research and prepare these sites with some wonderful County staff for the upcoming launch this week. For our friends in the Washington, D.C. area, the launch event is Friday, September 27th at 10:30am at the intersection of Maryland & Montgomery Avenues in Rockville, MD.

This will be the first bike-sharing service in the State of Maryland and will be the fourth jurisdiction to join Capital Bikeshare. These 51 stations will connect the inner suburbs of Friendship Heights & Bethesda on D.C.'s northwest edge and Silver Spring & Takoma Park on D.C.'s northeast edge. Also, there will be a satellite pod of stations in the less dense suburban and exurban Rockville & Shady Grove neighborhoods. These stations will connect with Metro's Red Line (subway) with downtown Rockville, housing, a shopping center, and the Life Sciences Center, which includes a hospital and various science-focused companies and universities. This satellite pod will highly focus on the first-mile/last-mile trip for commuters who live and work in this area and use the subway as part of their commute. It should be a fascinating study about how bike-sharing succeeds in the suburbs and exurbs. Academics take note.

Additionally, MetroBike serves as the program manager for Arlington County, Virginia's (USA) portion of Capital Bikeshare. We recently completed the Arlington County FY13 Summary Report on Capital Bikeshare which details Arlington's portion of the regional Capital Bikeshare service. The document discusses the service's growth, successes and challenges, and includes a three-year examination of many key statistics: like trips, number of customers, miles, and crashes. A graphic showing Arlington's total cost recovery since inception is below.


It's a good read to learn more about how Arlington's portion of Capital Bikeshare is doing after its first three years of service. The County has achieved a 61% total cost recovery this past fiscal year, but has a ways to go. Here are the stats from the document for a preview:


Capital Bikeshare just celebrated its third birthday on September 20 and regionally the service has reached 5.3 million trips with 248 stations and 2,073 bikes. Not too shabby as the Washington, D.C. region continues to strive to become ever more bike-friendly -- and is succeeding.

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