From GGW,
A new bike sharing system based on Montreal's Bixi will have 1,100 bikes spanning 100 stations in DC and 14 in Arlington, replacing DC's existing SmartBike system, leaders announced this morning.
The new system will allow a wider range of membership opportunities. Annual memberships will cost $80, double the current SmartBike rate of $40, though for a much better service. People can also purchase monthly memberships for $30 or daily ones for $5. All memberships allow unlimited bike rentals, free for the first 30 minutes with usage fees (levels not yet specified) after 30 minutes.
The exact locations haven't been released yet, but Arlington is concentrating theirs in the Pentagon City/Crystal City/Potomac Yard area (the Blue and Yellow Line corridor). The Crystal City BID helped pay for this portion.
Apparently London announced a similar deal with Bixi, for 6000 bikes and 400 stations.
See Times article (including video overview of the bikes and docking station): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7132781.ece
Do we know anything about the planned timing of the DC/Arlington rollout? The article linked in GGW's piece points out that Bixi faces the challenge of scaling up production quickly for these new deals.
Posted by: Matt | May 21, 2010 at 01:35 PM
I wonder what they're doing with the old bikes? My mom would love to own one.
Posted by: darren | May 21, 2010 at 04:10 PM
I expect this to be exponentially better than the current SmartBike setup. Looking forward to it.
I've understood Sept/Oct to be the planned delivery window, Matt.
Posted by: MB | May 21, 2010 at 09:54 PM