July 2010 DC BAC Meeting Notes

The Bicycle Advisory Council meeting started with a presentation by Chris Holben of DDOT on Capital Bikeshare.

DDOT presented the design for the bikes, which was made public yesterday (along with Arlington's map). They mimic some of the same colors and design patterns as the Circulator Buses. They continue to work on themes, logos, designs, websites, a space from which to manage the system etc...

They're pretty excited about hiring the same manager of Smartbike to handle CaBi - there being only so many people in North America with this kind of experience. 

As for locations, they had a draft version of the map but they're still working on it. The Map has been made using population density, closesness to transit and bike facilities, shopping density, work site density, etc..It looks like what you'd expect, with more stations near downtown and fewer farther out. We do know that the 10 SmartBike locations will be CaBi stations as well, with possible slight modifications so as to get the solar panels in the right places. All the stations will be on DDOT right-of-way, either on the sidewalk or in streetside parking. That means none on NPS land, Architect of the Capitol land, GAO land etc...The stations can take up quite a bit of space (40' by 10' or more), so finding places that can house them is harder than you might think. They have a modular design, so they can be expaned. A base station is 10 feet long and holds 3 bikes (with the control area on the end). Up to three 10 foot sections can be added to the base, each holding 4 bikes, for a 40 foot station holding a total of 15 bikes.

The system will cost $6.4 Million. $5M for bikes, stations and installation, and $1.4 million to operate it for the first year. They estimate that 60-70% of operating costs will be covered by user fees in the first year.

The bikes will have a 40 pound luggage carrier and an adjustable seat that can't be removed. The aluminum in the 47.3 pound bikes will all be recycled. The bikes are very durable with a patented chain design.

Unlike SmartBike, CaBi will run 24 hours a day, 365.25 days a year and you can buy a one day membership at the station using a credit card. In addition to a membership fee of 1 day, 1 month or 1 year, the system will charge user fees. The first 30 minutes is free, but each succesive 30 minutes charges a fee increasing geometrically. One hour would cost $1.50. 90 minutes would cost $4.50. Two hours would cost $10.50. This should not be too onerous. On Smartbike, which doesn't charge for the first three hours, 85% of trips were less than 30 minutes. And of course, you can ride 30 minutes, check your bike in and then immediately check out another bike and ride 30 minutes more.

In addition to the stations, CaBi will staff as many as eight events in the first year, ramping up to 20 a year later, with a bike coral. This will be a roped off area where employees can check out bikes with handheld devices. This way, when an event brings added traffic to an area, DDOT can adjust the system to handle that. 

Online, you'll have an account that should be able to get you a receipt as needed, show you how many miles you're biking (point to point, or a predetermined route only), how much you've reduced your carbon footprint, etc... Eventually DDOT wants an app you can download to your phone that will tell you exactly how many miles you've ridden.

DDOT is still negotiations with Clear Channel about SmartBike. So they can't say what will happen to those bikes,how the stations will be removed, how the system will be closed or what happens with the bus shelter contract that made SmartBike possible.

They'll begin taking members in August, installing stations in September and completing the installation in October.

DDOT update

They're widening the sidewalk along Maine Avenue SW as part of the ART

DDOT has installed 1400 bike racks so far. They're going to start installing some artistic racks in near SE/SW paid for with ballpark district parking money. These will have the basic DC flag design and will read "Barracks Row", "Pennsylvania Ave" or  "Southwest" depending on where they go.

In downtown they're working on installing in-street parking, that will remove auto parking, at 5 locations. Each will remove two parking spaces and add room for 40+ bikes. They might do two more on 11th street NW near Meridian Pint and Red Rock Pizza. They're also considering adding more parking on the Plaza at Columbia Heights.

WABA will install 300 bike racks with TE money and the  Downtown BID is installing 60 racks to add to the 250 they already have, with a goal to get 350 racks by end of year.

Even after all of that, DDOT still has 400 more racks coming soon.

Trail counts on MBT show that 50-60 people use it per hour.

The bike lanes on Penn stop at 14th, for now, to work out issues with council/Mayor parking and bus unloading at the White House Visitor's Center. They're going to work on the 15th Street Cycletrack next, and they hope to complete the Penn bike lane with that project. They'll be scheduling some public outreach soon.

There was a proposal for the Legislative committee to investigate proposing a law forbidding motorized vehicles from parking at bike racks.

The Safety, Education and Enforcement Committee will continue to review the Idaho Stop law and make a call on whether that is the direction to go, or if education and enforcement should be stepped up to get cyclists to comply with stop sign/lights laws.

Shane Farthing of WABA showed up and this was his first meeting. He talked about the 300 bike parking spaces WABA would be adding and how they would determine where to put them. The 50 States Ride is the next big event. He'll be riding in Cap Crit's celebrity ride.

Comments

[SJE]

All good news.

Are there studies on the relationship between bike security/anti-theft and people's willingness to ride? Adding racks is great, but if people feel that their bike will be stolen, and the police unsympathetic, the racks will not be sufficient.