SmartBike Early Coverage and Expansion

Even with the slow-start (60 out 120 bikes on opening day) of SmartBike this month, there was no shortage of coverage. Marc Fisher was a Beta tester and he's a believer.

I know plenty of downtown workers will never opt for a mid-day bike ride for ANY reason, particularly in August (although let the record reflect that the heavily fendered and chain-gaurded bikes are kind to work cloths). But to me, a non-biker in real life, it was near euphoria to make a 12-minute trip from U Street to my office at 15th and L Streets, one that would have taken about 30 minutes by Metro. I'll be using it again. And I suspect that as the system grows, it will attract more than enough riders to keep busy all the bikes they provide.

And so is Robert Thomason.

WTOP covered it.

And so did NBC4 - mentioning other coming improvements as well

In an effort to make D.C. more bike-friendly, a $4 million parking facility will be built next to Union Station for bicycles.

City officials said parking a bike at the station will cost about $1 a day or $100 for an annual membership. The garage is set to be completed next spring.

D.C. has 34 miles of bike lanes. Four more miles will be added before the end of the year, and Fenty promised 100 more bike racks will also come online in the next five months.

Both mentioned that the bikes are BYO helmet. Perhaps that will increase the sales of folding helmets.

Not everyone is as impressed as Fischer et. al.

As a board-certified anesthesiologist, I can attest to the fact that the blunt trauma and internal injuries that a pedestrian, inline skater or, yes, bicyclist, would sustain in an accident with an automobile, even at urban crawl speeds, will be uniformly fatal, given the mismatch in the inertial mass of the two.

Why D.C. officials and the "urban cool" haven't studied this phenomenon or found it intuitively obvious is a mystery to me ["D.C. Bike Sharing Kicks Into High Gear," Metro Aug. 13]. A photo accompanying that article, showing Ellen Jones, transportation director for the Downtown Business Improvement District, riding in traffic and dwarfed by the sheer tonnage of the vehicles around her, should scream "death wish" to any rational individual. This is why the SmartBike DC program is such a bad idea.

I would argue with him that riding a bike in downtown does not constitute a death wish, but gosh he's a board certified anesthesiologist. Since every collision is uniformly fatal - sorry Mary Gorman, but you're a ghost - I guess that folding helmet is a waste of money.

One week in, 450 users had signed up and Clear Channel was talking expansion.

The plans call for SmartBike racks to be set up in a gradual, circular motion away from the downtown core of the city. The racks would be no more than five to eight blocks away from one another.

One area that seems destined for SmartBike is Capitol Hill.

"Capitol Hill is definitely near the top of our list for expansion," says Jim Sebastian, bicycle program coordinator for DDOT. "I would say SmartBike will be there by next spring at the latest."

DDOT is also studying whether a cap has to be set up for the number of registered SmartBike users. Early figures show a cap may be needed at 2,000 or 3,000 users.

I live on Capitol Hill, so I'm pretty excited about that and so is DCist. Fisher also mentioned expansion

(coming soon, Capital[sic] Hill, Georgetown, various spots along the mall)

And New Columbia Heights talked with DDOT and learned that there will be a SmartBike station in Columbia Heights as well.  (tip GGW).

So that's Capitol Hill, Georgetown, Columbia Heights and some on the Mall. Not bad.

Update: And also on M Street NW below the convention center

All is not rainbows and puppies though.

Someone tried to steal a SmartBike from the rack at the Shaw SmartBike location over the weekend, D.C. Department of Transportation spokesperson Karyn LeBlanc says.

"The person came and took the back tire and lifted it - physically lifted it over the rack - in hopes that it would snap the lock," LeBlanc says.

The rack proved too mighty for this thief, however, and the bike did not come off the rack.

The bike was damaged, and will most likely have to be replaced.

Finally here's the streetfilms video on SmartBike

Comments

[Jack]

I wonder whether the "board-certified anesthesiologist" drives a car. Certainly the great majority of trauma cases he must deal with involve people in cars.

I've biked a tremendous amount in my life, but the only vehicle I was ever seriously injured using was an automobile.

[MB]

I joined without expecting to really use it - I've no shortage of bikes - but discovered last week that it's a handy connector between the Orange and Red lines, skipping Metro Center. Dupont's a bit of a hike from Foggy Bottom metro for a night out, but it's an easy roll.

Can't say that the experience has been universally good, though - the rack at 14th and U was non responsive when I went to get a bike, and the "service" number on the Smartbike card simply connects you to a general ClearChannel Outdoor mailbox. My message (from last Thursday) has gone unreturned.