Last night, in a close 7-0 vote the Alexandria City Council voted to join Capital Bikeshare. The city
will install six stations, with 54 bikes, in the Old Town and Carlyle neighborhoods. If successful, the program would expand to Del Ray, Arlandria, Potomac Yard and the West End, later connecting to the Arlington network. The earliest that the bright-red bikes will be stationed in Old Town will be spring 2012, city officials said.
The unanimous support on the council echoes enthusiastic support in the community
Council members were inundated with calls and e-mails lobbying them to approve the measure, “probably the most e-mails I’ve ever gotten in an hour,” Mayor William D. Euille (D) said.
A round of groups including the Alexandria Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, the Environmental Policy Commission, the Del Ray Citizens Association, and the Transportation Commission, supported the program.
Alexandria expects between 40,000 and 50,000 trips in the first year.
The cost of setting up and operating the network the first year would be covered by $400,000 in federal transportation funds, and revenues from the rental bikes are expected to help defray most of the cost of the program the second year, as has been the case in the District and Arlington. In addition, some Alexandria employers are asking about covering the capital and operating costs of a station in exchange for promotion.
It will be funded with Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funding same as DC's was. They plan to expand to 12 city-funded stations in 2013. Of the $400k, $264k is for the bikes and stations, $108k is for operations and $32,000 is for installation. Since the $108,000 for operations doesn't count revenue, it will surely be less than that. They hope that revenue will cover 30% of operations in the first year. By the third year, they're expecting revenue to cover all operations costs.
More stations could be built by developers (the green dots on the map above), with the new Harris Teeter already scheduled to include a bike station paid for by the developers.
Froggie has a map of his own proposed locations, and promises more info at GGW today.
There's some other interesting tidbits in the city memorandum. For example, bikes last 6 years and stations last 10. The cost per ride in DC is $1.06 and in Arlington it's $2.11. The Dash bus is $3.03. Revenue in Arlington has covered 65% of operating costs.
Meanwhile, in Arlington
County Board members on Oct. 15 are expected to formally approve receipt of $1.24 million in state transportation funding that will pay for the purchase and installation of 24 bike stations (housing between 11 and 15 bikes apiece) and 154 bikes. No local funds will be involved.
Funding will be used to expand the system in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, Crystal City and Pentagon City, bringing the total number of bikeshare stations in the county to 70. Installation of the stations is expected to be completed by next summer.
2011 will be remembered as the tipping point for cycling in this region.
Posted by: Crickey7 | October 12, 2011 at 09:08 AM
Funny -- I thought that Arlington money had already been committed this summer. So much for "Fall of 2011" for bike stations.
Posted by: charlie | October 12, 2011 at 09:22 AM
This bikeshare thing will never work.
Posted by: oboe | October 12, 2011 at 09:41 AM
This ought to drive the landed gentry of Old Town nuts. They already hate the tourists and the bicyclists that they have, now that the latter will increase subtsnatially. Look for the APD to start annoying bicyclists next summer in response to the Old Towners's bitching to City Hall.
Posted by: Rootchopper | October 12, 2011 at 09:43 AM
Old Town is an ideal area for CaBi expansion. Glad to hear that Alexandria is now onboard. I know I'll be using those stations soon after they are installed.
As for Arlington, they had previously announced that the expansion would start up later than originally planned. That's not news.
Posted by: Michael H. | October 12, 2011 at 09:49 AM
@Charlie -- from reading the Arlington article, it looks like the Summer 2012 expansion is in addition to the current one in the works.
Currently, there are 18 stations in Arlington.
The near-term expansion of 30 or so will bring the total near 50.
The summer expansion will be 24, which is described as expanding Rosslyn-Ballston corridor and Crystal/Pentagon City to 70 stations total. (Personally, I'd like to see at least half of those 24 go to connecting the two areas, by building a couple of key stations along 4 mile run, and in parts of Columbia Pike and Shirlington).
Posted by: Jacques | October 12, 2011 at 09:55 AM
I read it the way Jacques does. These are in addition to the coming expansion.
For the current expansion, Arlington has finished siting all the stations and is now filing the paperwork as I understand it.
Posted by: washcycle | October 12, 2011 at 09:59 AM
My GGW article is now posted.
Posted by: Froggie | October 12, 2011 at 10:00 AM
@Jacques, Michael H; OK, now I am really confused.
I thought the funds for the 2011 expansion -- which clearly is not happening this year -- were from car decal stickers.
This article is about state funds, as as Jacques said, it does look like a longer list of stations (70)
In terms of Alexandria, I don't think it will quite the success, of say, DC. If I had some time this morning it would be intersting to contrast it with the CC pod. However, I think long tourist trips to Mt. Vernon will help Alexandria on the financial side quite a bit -- and hurt DC and Arlington.
Posted by: charlie | October 12, 2011 at 10:00 AM
@charlie -- I could see some (though not too many) Alexandria riders taking bikeshare to Mt. Vernon, but it's a 15-mile roundtrip from Old Town. So I'd think if anyone who doesn't already have their own bike is considering taking one from Alexandria, they're probably not replacing a 25-mile bikeshare roundtrip from DC or Arlington, they're just replacing a different mode for travel to Mt.Vernon.
The bigger argument for Old Town (and why they probably stayed away from Del Ray for this round) is that it has huge potential for tourist use, but also as last-mile usage for folks from other parts of the city coming in to Old Town for an afternoon or an evening.
You will likely have some of the same morning mono-polar rush hour issues that you have with other metro-centric sites, but I also think there's much more of a potential counterbalance in the number of day-trippers who come to shop, eat, or play in Old Town, who will be taking those bikes away from the Metro, in addition to a not-huge but not-insignificant number of people who work in Old Town/Carlyle.
That counterbalancing is something that you don't necessarily see at places like Columbia Heights.
I don't think bikeshare will necessarily be a huge success in a 6-station pod (and I agree that the rider projections seem optimistic for a small pod system), but I do think that if you have to start with six stations, the Old Town area is in some ways uniquely well-suited to that set up. (I really think, though that it won't be until you incorporate Del Ray and Potomac Yards--actually connecting to the South Arlington network--that Alexandria bikeshare usage will really take off).
Posted by: Jacques | October 12, 2011 at 11:40 AM
6 stations will succeed depending on how you define success. If Alexandria is set up similar to Smart Bike's initial 10 stations and operates as it's own unique node and service area (with corresponding service vehicle and crew), then there's no reason why it wouldn't work. The occasional mix with Arlington's system, or the rare and expensive trip all the way to DC would most likely be outliers.
Posted by: jeff | October 12, 2011 at 12:19 PM
@Jacques; it isn't resident who go to Mt. Vernon. It is tourists. Just go look at the bike rack at mt. vernon -- always a few bikeshare bikes.
From DC, that is a minimum of two hours. More like 3 with a tour of the house. That is $9 to $15 per bike.
My understanding is that will be marked down from the last station used (or recharged). I suspect the majority are comign from DC now. With stations in Alexandria, will people use those? Only 6 (or 12) stations isn't enough, but we aren't talking a lot of bikes -- just a lot of revenue.
Posted by: charlie | October 12, 2011 at 01:04 PM
That makes sense -- I'm surprised at the trip length, but good to hear that people are making it.
(After 20 miles on a CaBi at BikeDC, when I woke up to a blownout rear tire on my bike, I'm massively impressed by anyone who takes that kind of ride, and I would be very impressed if they do it in under 3 hours).
Posted by: Jacques | October 12, 2011 at 01:26 PM
OK, I was confused about the station numbers too. The previously announced stations in Rosslyn-Ballston (in addition to the 4 already in place) were set to be added by late summer and this fall. But obviously that hasn't happened. Arlington later said that those stations would be installed throughout the fall and into next year, which I interpreted as meaning that most of those stations wouldn't be installed until late winter/early spring. (A little disappointing, but that's how it goes sometimes.)
I hadn't heard about the extra 24 stations in Arlington. Or maybe I did, but there have been so many stories about CaBi expansion this year that I'm getting them all mixed up. (Which is a good thing.) Crystal City is already pretty well covered, although there are some bike balancing issues too. They could add onto the already large station at the Crystal City Metro. Another station in the Potomac Yards area would be welcome too.
I don't think Arlington is going to add stations on Columbia Pike or in Shirlington for now. I can't think of a good location for a station in Pentagon City that would work better to connect to the Clarendon/Court House group. Maybe at the corner of Joyce St. and Army-Navy Drive? That doesn't cut off too much distance for the PC/Clarendon trip, but it helps a little. The Harris Teeter and Pentagon Row stores are nearby. So is the existing Pentagon Row station.
I agree that the Old Town stations could attract many one-day users, meaning a lot of revenue per station. If you look at the member statistics on the CaBi site, you'll see that the vast majority of riders are one-day and 5-day members. This bodes well for the system becoming close to self-sustaining relatively quickly. While I don't think it's necessary for CaBi to be self-sustaining (since no other transportation systems are), that amount of revenue can help to spur even more expansion of the system, whether it's more density in high-traffic areas, or stations in new areas like Bethesda and Friendship Heights.
Keep those stations coming, CaBi!
Posted by: Michael H. | October 12, 2011 at 02:24 PM
I also get the impression that many tourists don't know about the 30-min. time limit or they just don't care, since they are on vacation. That means even more revenue per ride for stations in tourist areas like Old Town.
Posted by: Michael H. | October 12, 2011 at 02:28 PM
Hopefully they'll put stations at the airport and Potomic Yards. That would really help tie the entire area together.
Posted by: dynaryder | October 12, 2011 at 02:29 PM
@Rootchopper: "They already hate the tourists and the bicyclists that they have"
I don't see that at all, and I've lived in Old Town for 6 years. It actually seems to me that the people who hate on bikes ARE the tourists (or at least out of towners) who don't get why they can't go 30mph down King Street at 6:30pm on a Tuesday (and I'm specifically referencing an experience I personally had at 6:30pm last night. Got hassled to get out of the road by some Georgians in a pickup truck...who I eventually sailed past again when they got stuck behind the trolley :) )
Posted by: Catherine | October 12, 2011 at 04:07 PM
I think tourists are aware of the 30 minute limit -- they don't care.
$12 or $20 for a bike ride is cheap! And much easier than say, Bike and Roll.
It is a real balancing act. One one hand, having DC become self-sustaining in bikeshare is a big deal. On the other, having tourists take all the bikes on weekends is very annoying. I hope one we get 3-4 rounds of expansion the problem starts to limit itself.
Posted by: charlie | October 12, 2011 at 04:36 PM
This is so cool. I can't wait for Potomac Yard and Del Ray to connect Alexandria with Crystal City (and on to DC). Awesome!! How's this for a dream: Stations at Belle Haven, Stratford, Mount Vernon and Fort Belvoir.
Posted by: double duty | October 12, 2011 at 11:14 PM
@Catherine
To be fair, there HAVE been complaints from Old Town residents about bicyclists...mostly cyclists running red lights and stop signs without even bothering to look. We on the BPAC have been briefed on this by city staff.
Posted by: Froggie | October 13, 2011 at 07:41 AM
@Froggie: I lived in Old Town for a long time and still spend a good amount of time there. If the residents driving automobiles stopped "running red lights and stop signs without even bothering to look" we would have achieved a greatv safety goal. Stand on any corner in South east Old Town and observe.
It's the same old song again. The scofflaw cyclist. blablabla
Posted by: Eric_W. | October 13, 2011 at 08:38 AM
@Eric Oh I know. I see it every time I'm in Old Town REGARDLESS of mode of travel. Drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians are all equally guilty of it.
Posted by: Froggie | October 13, 2011 at 08:49 AM
So are the Alexandria docks going to be built on pontoon rafts? Enter a new form of dock blocking.
Posted by: Max | October 13, 2011 at 11:06 AM