Last March, Arlington released the final version of the county's Capital Bikeshare 2013 Summary Report. That report shows a rapidly expanding system, and the benefits and problems that such expansion bring. During last year, the program expanded by 32%, even though expansion was slowed by lengthy site approvals. But county memberships (up 40%), trips starting in the county (up 97%) and trips ending in the county (up 72%) increased by larger percentages. Another positive sign for growth of the system is tht even though the number of bikes and docks for Arlington grew slower than for the regional system, the ridership grew more than twice as fast.
Unfortunatley, despite this success, the cost recovery ratio dropped from 64% to 59%. On the reduced cost recovery ratio (CRR), the report reads
Not including management and marketing expenses, Arlington’s portion of Capital Bikeshare recovered 74% of its operating expenses in FY13, down from 83% the previous fiscal year. This is likely due to a couple of reasons. This fiscal year Arlington is beginning to provide bikeshare service away from the Metrorail corridors and into corridors and neighborhoods where automobile usage is higher and transit and bicycle usage is lower due to great distances between homes and services, population and employment density is lower, and a hilly topography in some areas. Additionally, a majority of the new stations were installed in areas which are new to Capital Bikeshare and it takes time for the community to become familiar with how to use the service and make it part of their daily routine.
The CRR is better than for Metrobus, but not quite as good as Metrorail. Meanwhile, management and marketing expenses have grown at a slower rate than system expansion.
For the 3rd year in a row, there were no CaBi thefts in Arlington, but there was a 100% increase in reported crashes (from 3 to 6).
The new "daily key" was only in use for 2 months at the end of the reporting (end of June), but there were about 75 daily key memberships bought each month. You can see all the reports, and the annual surveys here.
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