BTWD 2010 Recap

It was, once again, the biggest Bike to Work Day in WABA's history with over 9000 cyclists. The event gets bigger every year. And despite no opening of the Penn Ave bike lanes, there were still some major announcements. But the day wasn't all celebration, as it ended with a most unfortunate tragedy.

The biggest announcement was a new, larger multi-jurisdictional bike sharing program, though it wasn't completely "news." For over a year, we've known that Arlington was planning to start a bike sharing program and that DC was planning to expand theirs. We've known that Bixi was likely to be the vendor of choice and that Arlington and DC wanted to use a combined system. We've known they wanted to have it up and running by the end of the year.  The announcement on Friday confirmed all of this. 

We did learn some specifics. We learned that annual, monthly and daily memberships will be available; that Arlington will have 15 stations in Pentagon City and Crystal City (but none along the Ballston corridor) and that DC will be paying about $6M and Arlington $850K in the first year.

Both jurisdictions believe they will recapture much of the expense through membership revenue, bike advertising and station sponsorship in the coming years. Memberships will be $5 a day, $30 a month or $80 a year.

That doubles the current annual fee, but for a massive increase in service area. And at $80 a year, it could be covered by the $240 bike commuter benefit.

The new system offers many improvements over SmartBike. First, it's going to be much larger - the largest in the United States. Because each additional station adds a new starting point and a new destination for every other station, it exponentially increases the options for users - at least until you start to hit saturation. Adding 105 stations to a 10 station system makes it significantly more useful. And Chris Hamilton, Arlington's commuter services chief, says the goal is to get to 4000 or 5000 bikes within a few years. That would be game-changing. In fact, Arlington plans to add stations to Rosslyn in 2011.

Another big improvement is that the system will now extend beyond DC's borders. You'll be able to pick up a bike in DC and drop it off in Arlington. The agreement makes it more like that any bike sharing in Alexandria, College Park etc.. will join in. In fact Alexandria and Montgomery County were part of the selection committee. Regional cooperation is often problematic, so it's good to see that they've found a way to make it work. The system also becomes the natural choice for Congress, NPS, American University and anyone else using a closed system to simply join the larger effort. Or private companies that want to provide bike rentals for their employees can pool money to put a kiosk in their neighborhood and/or buy memberships.

Places such as Paris and Barcelona have city-wide bike sharing programs. Lesk thought he might do something on a smaller scale for employees in his office.

The firm purchased three bikes of varying sizes to launch the program in conjunction with Bike to Work Day on May 21. Employees can check them out from the receptionist at the front desk after signing a waiver and release. The firm also provides helmets and locks. Lesk said that if the program is successful, he expects the firm to buy more bikes.

Another advantage of the new system is that it will allow for walk up credit card rentals, making the system more easily available to tourists and other visitors.

What remains to be announced is where the stations will go, when - exactly - it will open, what will happen to Clear Channel (do they walk away with a windfall or have to provide other compensation?) or their bikes and what the system will be called. On the last of those, you can vote here. There are 17 proposals and they're accepting new ones - which means it will be named Colbert.

I was late getting down to BTWD itself so I missed the announcement as well as most of the speeches, but Streetsblog had coverage of FTA chief Peter Rogoff's remarks (he biked in). I thought I heard him say that he often bikes to work, but I may have been mistaken. BikeLeague had a roundup of other coverage nationwide.

FABB covered the Fairfax event and noted that only one person who showed up gets the Bicycle Commuter Tax Benefit. But, the US DOT had an announcement of their own, announcing that they would start offering the benefit to their employees, which is excellent news (hello new WeBike - or whatever - members).

Of course all this good news, was countered by the tragic deaths of a cyclist and driver in Fairfax county

[Abdel Ouahid Chadli, 18] had hoped to become a veterinarian and had been accepted at George Mason University. He was about to tout that news in graduation announcements that he was eager to mail to relatives scattered across the country, his father said. 

Gary Anthony Thorne of Manassas, 32] the father of a 10-year-old daughter, had been laid off in April from a job as a forklift operator at a Chantilly warehouse but had leads on new employment, family members said.

Police have not determined why Thorne lost control of the car.

Update: Adam Voiland has more coverage with audio and photos from multiple pit-stops.

Comments

[JeffB]

Small technical issue with the flash? They are not loading.

[darren]

Collection Of Loaner Bikes for Everyone's Recreation and Transportation

[Eric_W.]

I wonder how Alexandria managed to include itself in this program. Seems like another logical extension...

[John]

One of the unintended benefits of BTWD is that it exposes shortcomings in our bicycling infrastructure. My wife - who does not bike - tried to drive from I 66 westbound to Key Bridge. Cars backed up onto I66 because hardly anyone could turn at the end-of-ramp light due to the volume of bicycles. She also commented that it is incredibly hard to see bikes coming from the Mount Vernon Trail because they are obscured by a Jersey barrier wall, a fence, light poles, and bushes. I think the whole intersection needs to be re-thought and that the bikes and peds should get a dedicated light.