We're about a month away from SmartBike's DC debut, and so the early round of "Bike-sharing is coming" articles is being published. The City Paper got in on it. The Washington Business Journal points out that sign up can be done with a 1-800 number (1-800-899-4449) - so that should help tourists. Steve Eldridge gets in the loop on the new program over on Commuter Page Blog. And of course the Post ran an article in the Metro section about it, which included a little bit of new info like the non-returned bike fee is $200 (does that seem low to anyone else? Addendum: especially considering the vandalism issues in Paris). It also includes a bit about locks -
Officials had hoped to launch the D.C. program earlier, but several problems -- including how to keep in-use bikes parked away from the storage racks from being stolen -- need to be resolved.
Sebastian said that the city is looking at a lock that would remain on the bicycle, modeled after one used successfully in Paris.
And a bit about Arlington County, which
is also looking at a bike-sharing program, though it plans to use an automated system that would reserve bikes by cellphone, said Paul DeMaio, who owns MetroBike LLC and is a consultant to the county.
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