Capital Bikeshare is an important piece of DC's transportation system, and one that is found in every ward in DC, but we've made it harder for high school students to use it to get to and from school than we need to. As a story on CNN highlighted, for a lot of kids taking bikeshare to school is illegal, because the age limit is 16 years old.
The age minimums for U.S. bikeshare systems are generally 16 or 18 years of age, restricting most highschoolers from riding. How to best set these age minimums is an afterthought. A Boston department of transportation spokeswoman told CNN the department wasn't even sure why its bikeshare's age minimum had been set at 16. Many defer to the company that operates their bikeshare system. These companies are inclined to set high age minimums rather than pay additional insurance costs.
The insurance costs is a reason I have not heard before. I thought they set it at 16 so they could avoid the helmet requirement - kids under 16 are required to wear a helmet. I wasn't even aware CaBi had insurance, but I suppose they do.
Research shows that children who exercise in the morning concentrate better in school. When more people rides bikes, air quality improves, aiding everyone's health. Having a bicycle also teaches responsibility and confidence.
So one thing we could do is lower the age limit to 15 or 14. We could do it only for DC residents if we're worried about a bunch of 14 year old tourists tearing the roads up. We could also lower the required helmet age, but that wouldn't be necessary, just easier and it would encourage more riding. I'm not sure what the science is on helmet benefits as it relates to age.
"We should absolutely be giving these kids memberships or reduced-fee memberships because it lowers our costs," said Gabe Klein, co-founder of the transportation consultancy CityFi and former transportation commissioner in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
The second thing we can do is give high school kids free bikeshare memberships. We could make them free only during the times when the Kids Ride free program operates (which, admittedly is "all day, every day (including weekends)"), but it wouldn't save us much money over just making it free all the time. It will still be cheaper then letting them ride transit for free.
In addition to all the other benefits of biking for transportation, it could help reduce truancy.
Even though students in the District can ride public transportation for free, some said their commutes are long and public transit isn’t always reliable.
“I have to catch two buses to get to school,” said Lloyd Hardy, a rising senior at a local charter school.
“Sometimes the bus is not there on time or there’s a delay. And during winter and daylight saving it’s dark in the morning. Georgia Ave. is a nice place but sometimes there’s some shady things going on so it’s hard to get to school on time,” Hardy shared. If you’re late, Hardy says his school gives you detention. “So If you miss the bus, just don’t even go.”
CaBi's not always available either. But if transportation problems are a reason for skipping school, then we should give them as many options as we can.
We don't have to do all of these things. We could give free CaBi memberships to kids 16 and over and not lower the CaBi age. Or we could lower the CaBi age but not change the helmet age. But the more of these things we do, the more we can give students more choices. Choices that will save them time, help them learn and make it easier for them to get to school in the first place.
I would donate to fund a pilot that offered free CaBi memberships to kids 16 and over. Maybe a pilot could be started at a school or 2 where it made a lot of sense to do so.
Posted by: Ren | August 10, 2017 at 08:57 AM
The problem here is that with no skin in the game for the kids, you'd likely see a higher incidence of bikes not returned.
Posted by: Crickey | August 10, 2017 at 08:59 AM
Crickey, I suppose that's a risk. But we'd know who it was, so we could put some skin in the game. Isn't that what detention is for?
Posted by: Washcycle | August 11, 2017 at 01:48 PM