Last spring, Prince George's County announced plans to add 670 Capital Bikeshare bikes at 67 stations spread between upcounty and the National Harbor* starting in spring 2018. More recently, Hyattsville has entered talks to add mBike stations to the town as well.
On June 3, the Hyattsville City Council also discussed a plan to sign onto an existing agreement with College Park to participate in a 20 to 22-month trial period for mBike, a bike sharing program launched by Zagster in May 2016. The mBike program is largely centered around the University of Maryland (UMD) campus, with several stations recently added in the surrounding areas of College Park. This trial period would bring four stations and 40 bikes to Hyattsville, at locations yet to be determined.
I like the idea of co-locating the stations so that people can switch from one to another, and it probably makes sense near the metro at least.
The capital costs for the city to participate in the mBike program would be partially offset by a grant extended by the city of College Park. When the existing memorandum of understanding expires in May of 2019, Hyattsville will have the option of renewing the mBike agreement for an additional three years at full cost.
Most councilmembers and the Mayor seem to like the idea, but not all
Some councilmembers questioned the cost effectiveness of simultaneously piloting two programs that may compete for riders. “We are caught in between two emerging markets when it comes to bike-share programs,” said Councilmember Joseph Solomon (Ward 5). “Do we need to be in both markets at this time? Do we think the first step to evaluating feasibility of bike-share is to have two systems?”
*While I get that bikeshare may not make sense everywhere in the County, I would have probably considered the close in Metro Stations like Southern, Naylor Road and Capitol Heights. Even Suitland and Addison Road would probably make sense (as ways for people to connect to DC). Cheverly, though close to DC, probably doesn't unless they build some kind of trail or trails to better connect it.
Awesome. Not sure how the bikeshare split will work out but we shall see. Just looked at a house for sale in Hyattsville and on the list of negatives was that the town is a little far from metro (no biggie) but does not have bikeshare (now that's a biggie).
Posted by: Ren | July 19, 2017 at 01:45 PM