Capital Bikeshare Newsnami: Day 8

First of all, Montreal's paper fails.

• The Montreal Gazette's headline is "Bixi goes to Washington, but mostly Arlington" and they get the numbers backwards "Most of the bikes -about 1,000 - will be on the streets of Arlington, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, where 100 bikes will be in service." Whoops.
• Rob Mandle writes about his experience

I know that people have been wondering about the usefulness of the Crystal City connection so here are some key findings from my ride!

• I made it from Crystal City to Petworth in 42 minutes as a casual ride.
• I crossed Rhode Island Avenue on 11th Street just under my 30 minute free ride window.
• My trip to Petworth only cost $1.50. With newly adjusted fares, my Metro trip would have been $3.25.
• On a good day without any delays, the Metro trip would have taken me about 30 minutes.  Add in wait time at the metro and my walk to the metro and you have about a 40 minute trip – Virtually a wash.

• Mike Madden at CityPaper likes them too, but worries about helmets and locks. [A lock becomes less of an issue with each additional station]
• The press release notes that Bixi is now in the Capitals of Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. What's cool is that I think you'll be able to use your key and account in any of those places. As Bixi and B-Cycle grow it will be interesting to see how much they compete and overlap. Will they be mortal enemies like Duff and Fudd, or will the merge like flexcar/zipcar and XM/Sirius? Will people from Bixi towns shy away from vacations to B-cycle towns?
• Also, I heard that the Lincoln Park station - which was to be on the sidewalk along the park - is being reevaluated after neighbors complained about the impact on traffic. They're looking at putting it into the park, but that involves NPS. It no longer shows up on the proposed map. Nice job NIMBYs.
• The current map now shows 52 stations (and counting)
• CaBi plus Zipcar...that was the plan all along!
• 14th and U writes briefly about it and about the 14th Street Streetscape project. "DDOT will be holding a public meeting to discuss the project on that date from 6:30 pm - 8:00 PM [on Wednesday, 9/29/10] in the second floor community room at the Reeves Center, located at 14th and U."
• NotionsCapital, WAMU, VaBike, RTC and inhabitat contribute stories as well.

Photo by DDOTDC

 

Comments

[Rebecca]

Wow, that Montreal Gazette misinformation is pretty glaring. Too bad they make it so difficult to report factual errors...comments aren't allowed, no author is given, so I just e-mailed the general Letters to the Editor mailbox, [email protected] how long it will be before anyone picks up the e-mail....

[SJE]

Happy Car Free Day everyone, and have a great Fall (the season, not the sudden dismounting from your bike)....and keep safe

[SJE]

When will Bixi be in Georgetown and other areas that don't have a Metro station?

[Rebecca]

@SJE, I count 3 or 4 (depending on how you define your boundaries) stations in Georgetown looking at the station map.

[JT]

Crystal City to Petworth is 7.7 miles using a very direct route according to google maps. If you made it in 42 minutes, that's an 11 mile per hour average.

That's pretty impressive, considering that one must assume you had to stop at plenty of intersections on the way.

I'm not disputing that you did it or that it can be done, but I doubt most people could make the trip that fast in most circumstances without pushing pretty hard between stops.

[SJE]

Rebecca, you are right. The first link I used did not show any in GTown, but your link did. THanks!

[Rebecca]

@SJE Not all of the stations have been installed yet, which is why the Georgetown stations don't show up on the map of currently operational stations (only 52 of the 114 stations have been installed...DDOT says the rollout will be complete by the end of October). The map I linked you to contains all of the stations in the CaBi system, including the ones that aren't yet built.

Just be glad you live in Georgetown and not Brightwood, for which no love from CaBi is scheduled any time soon!

[SJE]

Ah, thanks for the explanation, Rebecca, and sorry that they will not be installing any in Brightwood. Just FYI, I only work in GTown (can't afford to live here too!), but would love to have something to get me around when I drive, or when I don't want my bike to be stolen if I go into the main part of DC.

[James]

I was on a short trip to downtown (near 15th & K st today and saw -2- of the new bikes

[Dave K]

Saw my first two in the wild (being used by paying customers) tonight on the Mall. They fit right into the cityscape.

[Eric_W.]

I aw one on the Mount Vernon Trail on the way home tomight. Just before 14th Street Bridge. Great!