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I hope it's a success and that it does indeed change the nature of commuting and short-trip travel in this area.

Happy CaBi Day, everyone.

I hope this'll get addressed at today's opening, but this morning when I walked by the new CaBi station in front of USDOT (across the street from the Metro entrance at M & New Jersey SE) the sign was labeled as "4th and M SE"--although online it's correctly identified as M & New Jersey. Sorry I couldn't grab a picture, hopefully someone else can grab a shot at the opening today.

fyi, your "Bikesharing is going to be awesome" link doesn't seem to be working.

I hope the program increases bike awareness and the prospects for advocacy. I hadn't thought about the possible effect on federal legislators seeing this in front of them, that's an excellent point. But "this will change everything"? Think you're overselling this just a tad!

Excellent, clear, helpful video.

Does anyone know how the federal government plans to handle local trips using Capital Bikeshare? (Or for that matter how it handles privately owned bikes?). I could imagine perhaps in a fashion analogous to cell phones where the employee makes a reasonable allocation of monthly cost, and the government pays as long as both (a) the government pays less than what a taxi would cost and (b) the government pays no more than the pro-rata share of all trips the employee took using the bike share.

I also hope this spurs more bike riding. But, if it does, the City (and other jurisdictions) will need to do a lot of work to provide more space for bikes. The recent increase in bike commuting has made bike lanes and trails very crowded and increasingly unsafe. We've all seen the resulting unruly behavior from drivers and pedestrians aimed at cyclists. It will get worse unless the City really addresses the issue -- dedicated lanes for bikes that are separated from auto traffic. After 16 years of bike commuting, i'm enough of a realist to know that this City is just not there yet....

I surprised Montreal wasnt mentioned. That is where I first experienced this system and was amazed! they have stations every three blocks throughout the city with Maps at every station showing bike routes and stations. that is the city we need to emulate when planning the future of this system. They plopped that huge system down all at once and it succeeded because of the huge presence. I hope we have enough stations to make it very usable like Montreals so it doesnt get dusty like the smartbike system.

I fixed the link. As for overselling, it depends on what you think I mean by everything. If you think I mean literally "everything" then yes. But I don't believe this will change "everything". Photosynthesis, for example, will continue on unchanged. But it will change everything that this blog is concerned about and many other things within the region - things we haven't even considered yet.

Jim, your question came up in the DC BAC meeting and no one seemed to know yet. Same with using the Bicycle Commuter benefit.

dcmeredith, that's kind of what I mean by changing everything. More cyclists will beget more facilities and will change the way the region thinks about roads and transportation.

@Tim - I think there are going to be a few location label corrections, soon. The location that my group delivered bikes to, today (21st and I, NW (but SE corner of that rather large intersection)) is labeled "Pennsylvania and 21st".

Jim - at the opening ceremony yesterday one of the speakers announced that GSA and OPM are ponying up $25,000 to pay Federal employee bikeshare memberships. No details on how that will work.

I was very pleased to see the GSA Administrator and OPM Director pledge support for the new Capital Bikeshare program. I am an early adopter and love the program. Here’s the rub: my primary purpose in signing on with CapBike was to decrease my GOV usage when transiting between meetings w/out sacrificing on the speed of the commute. Many of the locations I do business at are in the area bounded by 4th Street NW, C Street NW, 14th Street NW, and H Street NW. Within that area there are 5 Bikeshare stations planned but not installed. Unfortunately I have been informed that the reason 4 of those stations have not been installed is because the sites are owned by the Government Services Administration and DDoT has not been given permission to install at those locations.
If this is indeed true can we please cut through the red tape and give DDoT permission to install these last few stations? These sites are situated such that many federal employees’ ability to effectively make use the program is seriously hindered. If my information is incorrect then I apologize for passing on rumors. I love this program and I hope it is a success.

I don't think that's true. I think the issue is that they want to put them where the SmartBike stations are, but haven't removed the smartbike stations yet.

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