TheWashCycle

Poplar Point development includes a cycletrack, bike parking and bike sharing

Redbrick bought the Poplar Point land along both sides of Howard Avenue SE back in 2013 and for the last year they've been working with the Office of Zoning to come up with a design that meets their requirements. They're planning a massive five building project so that includes a lot more than bike stuff, but the project promises to be pretty bike friendly.

First of all, Howard Road will get a protected bike lane (PBL) from the Anacostia Metro entrance to South Capitol Street. In the rendering above, you can see a cyclist a riding in the Howard Road PBL and you can see the PBL again in the rendering below.

The PBL will be 9 feet wide and separated by a 3 foot wide barrier.

The cycletrack will transition to a sidepath leading to a plaza by the Anacosita Metro Station garage. That plaza will feature a new Capital Bikeshare station and bike racks. 

There will be 672 bicycle spots across two below-grade parking levels, compared to 562 vehicular parking spaces (425 office, 117 residential and 20 retail). That's about 40 more bike parking spaces than required by zoning regs (90 Short Term Spaces and
541 Long Term Spaces). 

And finally, DDOT requested that every resident over 16 be given a Capital Bikeshare membership and an annual car sharing membership, but the developers have asked to instead give either a car sharing or Capital Bikeshare membership because, they argue, "car share memberships are not as popular as they once were" because people would rather use ride hailing. 

This project, when combined with the new Douglass Bridge, should do a lot to make it easier to bike across the Anacostia and into the neighborhoods east of the river, among other things. 

There was a hearing on this last month, and in the transcript there's a humorous discussion about dockless bikeshare. 

[Commissioner Peter May (NPS)] -  first question is, what's with the bike helmet? Is that just a prop? Or did you ride your bike here?

[Tom Skinner (Red Brick)] - Actually that's the Mobike, which I guess are taking over from Capital Bikeshare. So, that's the new way to --

May - So you rode over here on a Mobike and that's your helmet? [WC: I'd like to see this helmet that caused May to comment on it]

Skinner - That's my helmet. I also noticed that you came by bike last time to this down here.

May - And I did tonight. But --

Skinner - And I do appreciate -- I do appreciate it.

[Bill Hellmuth, HOK Architects with Redbrick] - He also lured me into using one of those bikes the other day. And I'm not used to riding around in downtown D.C. So I immediately get on K Street and go under the tunnel on my way back to the office in Georgetown. And I thought I was going to be dead.

{Laughter}

MR. HELLMUTH: So, it's a great service. But never go under the vehicular tunnel because of the traffic.

COMMISSIONER MAY: I would agree with that. And also be very careful where you park your Mobike. Because we're having real problems with them showing up in the wrong places. All right. So anyway, I was just curious about that and whether it was like part of the presentation. Or just, you know. Anyway, that's good. I know the Chairman appreciates knowing how much you love riding around the city.

Later, when talking about the Metro plaza improvements

Zoning Commission Vice Chair Robert Miller - Is the Capital Bikeshare though as part of what you're proffering to put on the WMATA property?

MR. SKINNER: Yes. Yes.

Miller: Yes.

MR. SKINNER: And I mean, and we also wonder whether like the orange and the yellow bikes may, you know, take over the city. So, it's subject toward the teething problems they have with where they're left and everything like that. But, whatever is appropriate in terms of bikeshare, we're big advocates and, you know, fans of that.

TransAction Plan includes and defines bike and pedestrian projects for Northern Virginia

The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority adopted a TransAction Plan Update in October and it includes more than two dozen projects meant to make bicycling easier and better. 

Adoption of the new TransAction plan marks the first time the NVTA has updated it since passage of HB (House Bill) 2313 in 2013, which “established a dedicated, sustainable funding stream for transportation in Northern Virginia and allows the Authority to begin fulfilling its mission to address regional transportation challenges.”

Here's a list of the included bike projects

• Construct protected bike lanes on both sides of Route 7 between Alexandria and Seven Corners. Connect with City of Falls Church's bicycle network. Construct trail along Route 7 from Leesburg to Alexandria.
• Introduce and expand bikesharing services in Herndon in coordination with County regional system
• Install up to 24 bikesharing stations along Route 29, Route 7, Sycamore Street, Roosevelt Street, and W&OD Trail in the City of Falls Church.
• Construct multimodal improvements, including new or restructured bus bays, at the current East Falls Church Metrorail Station. These include bicycle and pedestrian connections, improve access and signalization on North Sycamore Street and Washington Boulevard, and bikesharing stations.
• Provide dedicated bicycle facilities, bikesharing and key sidewalk improvements on north-south corridors in Arlington to connect major east-west corridors with each other. Example corridors includes Carlin Springs Road, Walter Reed Drive/Fillmore Street, Harrison Street, Washington Boulevard, Route 110, and others. Network also includes:
  a. Trail parallel to Washington Boulevard between Arlington Boulevard and Columbia Pike;
  b. Rehab of Custis Trail to current VDOT shared used path design and construction specifications in Rosslyn;
  c. Extension of Custis Trail north of I-66 between North Kennebec Street and North Quantico Street;
  d. Long Bridge Park Esplanade extension to Mount Vernon Trail;
  e. Arlington Boulevard trail;
  f. Theodore Roosevelt Bridge connection to Mount Vernon Trail and Marine Corps War Memorial;
  g. Dedicated cycling facility along the Route 50 service road (southside), between North Rhodes Street and North Meade Street;
  h. Expansion of Arlington bicycle commuter routes: Bluemont Junction Trail, Custis Trail, Four Mile Run Trail, Mount Vernon Trail, W&OD Trail;
  i. Improve connections between the County trail network and activity centers, as well as interjurisdictional connections.
• Alexandria Bike and Pedestrian Trails Construction and Reconstruction;
  a. Reconstruct Holmes Run Trail from North Ripley Street to I-395;
  b. Construct trails along local streets in the Beauregard Street and Van Dorn Street corridor. This facility will provide a north-south connection to the City's Holmes Run Trail, running eastwest, and connecting bicycle users to Mark Center corridor;
  c. Construct pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Holmes Run at Morgan Street;
  d. Implement and construct projects in the City's Pedestrian/Bicycle Plan; and
  e. Construct bicycle improvements along Royal Street between Jones Point and Bashford Street, including signage and traffic calming.
• Improve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in and around the Columbia Pike corridor, including bikeways, bikesharing, and key sidewalk improvements, to convert SOV trips to, within, and between activity center areas from car to bicycle/pedestrian. Includes parallel bike routes along 9th Street, 11th Street, and 12th Street in the vicinity of Columbia Pike
• Develop a system of coordinated mobility hubs along major corridors to fully integrate transit, bikesharing, carsharing, ridesharing, pedestrians, bicycling, ride hailing, and other shared use services.
• Improve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in and around the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor, including bikeways, bikesharing, and key sidewalk improvements, to convert SOV trips to, within, and between Metrorail station areas from car to bicycle/pedestrian, and to enable access to/from Metrorail stations to high-density housing and job centers. Includes a designated bicycle lane along North Lynn Street and along Fort Myer Drive between Lee Highway at Rosslyn Circle and Fairfax Drive south of Arlington Boulevard
• Improve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in and around Arlington's Blue/Yellow Metrorail corridor, including bikeways, bikesharing, and key sidewalk improvements, to convert SOV trips to, within, and between Metrorail station areas from car to bicycle/pedestrian, and to enable access to/from Metrorail stations to high-density housing and job centers.
• Enhance regional bike routes (W&OD), including separate trails for walking and bicycling, updated crossings to increase safety, and lighting to keep trail open all year in the Falls Church area.
• Improve on- and off-road bicycle and pedestrian facilities, routes, and infrastructure along and adjacent to City of Fairfax corridors to provide better access to Metrorail and regional trails. Expand bikesharing, bike storage, and signage. Includes the extension of the George Snyder Trail.
• Implement bike rental stations in Town of Vienna in coordination with wider County and regional system. Extend Davis Drive (Route 868) from Glenn Drive (Route 864) to Fairfax County line at the future bridge over Dulles Toll Road (Route 267). Realign Rock Hill Road with Davis Drive. Construct a four-lane roadway over the Dulles Toll Road from Sunrise Valley Drive on the south side to Davis Drive extension in Loudoun County on the north side. The project would include pedestrian and bicycle facilities
• Construct a four-mile segment of the high-capacity transitway on Duke Street within City of Alexandria. Reconstruct Duke Street from Wheeler Avenue to Jordan Street with a center left-turn lane. Construct bicycle and pedestrian improvements along corridor
• Implement BRT service between the Pentagon and Kingstowne via Mark Center and Van Dorn Metrorail Station. Includes construction of a four-mile segment of dedicated bus lanes between Van Dorn Metrorail Station and King Street. The project also provides pedestrian and bicycle facilities within the corridor.
• Widen Arlington Boulevard (Route 50) to six lanes between the City of Fairfax and Arlington County. The project would include intersection improvements, including signalization improvements, and pedestrian and bicycle facilities.
• Multimodal improvements in Falls Church revitalization areas: West Broad Street, Washington Street Corridor, and East End. Improvements will include improved intersection geometry and signalization, improved pedestrian connectivity and accessibility, improved transit stops, and improved bicycle access
• Implement multimodal improvements and improve local connections along Fairfax Boulevard. Enhance transit, pedestrian/bicycle, and roadway facilities and infrastructure
• Implement multimodal improvements and improve local connections along Jermantown Road. Enhance transit, pedestrian/bicycle, and roadway facilities and infrastructure.
• Implement multimodal improvements along Old Lee Highway. Enhance transit, pedestrian/bicycle, and roadway facilities and infrastructure.
• Improved connections and circulation for all modes near the Northfax intersection. Improvements to and along Fairfax Boulevard in the vicinity of the Northfax intersection including pedestrian/bicycle safety,
• Intersection improvements at Fairfax Circle to improve vehicular and pedestrian/bicycle mobility and safety
• Traffic improvements for the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and Glebe Road, including signalization, accommodation for pedestrians, and turn lane channelization. Construct improvements at Mount Vernon Avenue and Four Mile Road intersection, including pedestrian/bicycle improvements. Construct pedestrian/bicycle bridge over Four Mile Run between Commonwealth Avenue and Eads Street. Construct Mount Vernon Avenue and Russell Road intersection safety improvements to accommodate pedestrian and bicyclists, which may entail intersection and parking configuration redesign. Construct a pedestrian/bicycle link from the Potomac Yard Trail to connect to the Four Mile Run Trail on the south side of Four Mile Run, and to the Mount Vernon Trail. Construct Oakville Triangle improvement projects
• Expand multimodal transportation capacity and safety in the Lee Highway corridor, providing viable options to move more people without increasing the volume of single-occupant vehicles. Includes addition of bicycle facilities along Route 29 corridor
• Transit and pedestrian/bicycle connections along Sycamore Street and Roosevelt Street with a bridge overpass connecting to planned redevelopment in Seven Corners.
• Construct a shared used path on both sides of Route 28 from Prince William County line to Dulles Toll Road.
• Construct a trail along Route 29 from Dixie Hill Road to East Falls Church Metrorail Station.
• Construct sidewalks, crosswalks, shared-use trails, and intersection improvements to improve pedestrian access to Silver Line Metrorail stations (Ashburn and Loudoun Gateway) in Loudoun County

2017 Maryland Bike and Ped funding includes WB&A bridge and National Harbor bikeshare

According to a recent press release:

The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) announced $20,395,834 in grants to support improvements for bicycle and pedestrian safety and connectivity across the state.

The money comes from federal Transportation Alternatives and Recreational Trails Programs and the state's Maryland Bikeways Program.

A lot of the funding is coming to the DC area

A project to link the WB&A Trail in Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties will receive $4.7 million from the Transportation Alternatives Program.  The project will link the WB&A Trail in Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties with a bridge over the Patuxent River.  The 700-foot bicycle and pedestrian bridge will complete a key missing link in the WB&A Trail, which was built on the abandoned railroad corridor of the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway.  Once constructed, bicyclists and other trail users will be able to travel more safely than sharing the roadways with motorized vehicles on MD 450, MD 3 and MD 175.  The WB&A Trail is a component of the East Coast Greenway and the American Discovery Trail, which are national trail systems running from Maine to Florida and Delaware to California, respectively.  This project is the result of an inter-jurisdictional planning and design team with broad public interest and support.

Prince George’s County will launch phases 1 and 1A of a 5-phase effort to deliver bikeshare to Prince George’s County, connecting with bikeshare systems in the region.  A Maryland Bikeways Program award of $188,765 will go toward phase 1A, which includes installing four bikeshare stations in the National Harbor area. Phase 1, which is construction, was awarded $737,362.50 from the Transportation Alternatives Program.  In Montgomery County, a $269,834 Maryland Bikeways Program award will be used to expand the Bethesda Trolley Trail Bikeshare network in Bethesda to Grosvenor Metro Station.

Other projects in the DC area include:

• Install 4 bikeshare stations along the Bethesda Trolley Trail and at Grosvenor Metro station, connecting to the bikeshare network in Bethesda ($269,834). The award will fund final design, purchase and installation of the stations that will connect existing bikeshare in Bethesda with new grant-funded stations to be installed in White Flint and Twinbrook in the spring of 2018.
• Feasibility study and 30% Design of bicycle facilities on Hanover Parkway in Greenbelt between Spellman Overpass and Greenbrook Dr., and traversing the Greenbelt Road (MD193) intersection ($50,000)
• 60% Design of a planned bikeway on New Hampshire Ave. (MD650) in Takoma Park between Auburn Ave. and Holton Ln., enhancing connections between the Ethan Allen Gateway, the Sligo Creek Stream Valley Trail, and the Takoma/Langley Crossroads area ($240,000)
• Rewatering the C&O Canal; construction ($2,450,000) and Towpath Rehabilitation; construction ($1,000,000)
• Central Avenue Connector Trail (Phase 1-Addision Road); design (640,000)
• Hollywood Road Sidewalk Design in College Park - Safe Routes to School (SRTS); design ($43,200)
• Takoma Park Improvements; Safe Routes to School (SRTS); construction ($160,000)

College Park TOD will update bike/ped Metro tunnel and add bike sharing

The Prince George's County planning board has approved a 440-unit transit-oriented apartment complex on a parking lot just south and east of the College Park Metro Station. That project will also build a parklet and add amenities for cyclists. 

The development of the apartment complex also includes redeveloping and landscaping the area in between the property and the Metro station known as Brooks Parcel. The vision for the patch of land, north of the proposed complex, is a public pedestrian plaza that will also be home to an M Bike station and the bikeshare program the county chooses to install in the coming years.

Other tasks detailed as conditions for approval by the planning board staff include updating the nearby bike and pedestrian tunnel with lighting and paint, replacing and relocating old and damaged signage in the area, and adding crosswalks through nearby streets.

Commissioner Will Doerner also made two other suggestions for the developers to consider as they go further along in the approval process. He suggested they consider adding a tool station for bikers near the bike share docks and that they consider adding wayfinding maps near the stations as well.

“That would be an obvious place for someone with a bike, who owns a bike, to kind of go and look and see if they could repair their bike,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything when I’ve been riding up there and it’s a terrible incident when you have a flat or something goes down and you just need to fix your bike really quickly.”

Haller noted that Gilbane is well aware of the need for bike tool stations and that a similar concern has come up as they continue to develop near a metro station in Hyattsville. He also said the history of this area of the county will play a large role in the development of the building and said the maps with local sites and places to visit are a great idea.

Other conditions for final approval include plans for short-term and long-term bike parking, restriping the street at River Road and River Tech Court and have a final internal sound study completed to ensure outside noise is not overpowering.

They should also set aside space along the south side of the stream (name?) through the Brooks Parcel for a trail between the Metro and the Northeast Branch trail. Such a trail could tie several facilities into the trail system and create a direct connection to the Metro. 

DoBi - This is kind of a big deal

Did you hear that dockless bikeshare came to the DC area? It's true. About 3 months ago. There are five companies - MoBike, LimeBike, Spin, Ofo and Jump DC. Some of them operate in Montgomery County and DC. 

Arlington and Alexandria are also exploring opening their borders to the new bike services, transportation officials there said last week. 

Despite the fact that I haven't blogged about this until now, it's kind of a big deal. Like, probably the biggest thing since Capitol Bikeshare - and I thought that was pretty big, if you'll recall (back then I thought a 50-station system was "going in big". Ah, youth.)  Anyway, I have a lot of thoughts on this. 

I think it's a big deal because it will help to fill in the gaps that the Capital Bikeshare model couldn't fill. Jump is bring e-bikes and might expand to cargo bikes. Others have talked of adding child carrying options. Dockless can expand more quickly into neighboring regions and can't more flexibly serve low-trip neighborhoods. There's no dock-blocking and less walking on the back-end. So it has a lot of potential.

And I don't think it represents an existential threat to Capital Bikeshare. CaBi is still the cheapest option for frequent users. $85 a year is a tough deal to beat for daily commuters. In fact, dockless becomes insurance against empty stations. In addition, Motivate is working on its own and I'd suspect to see them add it to the mix, creating a docked/dockless hybrid. We're lucky that the DC region didn't give Motivate an exclusive contract as NYC and San Francisco did because I think this will be good for residents, and probably for CaBi too. 

One thing I'd like to see is PG County get in on this. PG has been slow to add Capital Bikeshare, with the first not coming until 2018, and even then it's only to the north part of the county. But they could add bikeshare county-wide tomorrow if they wanted to. Or at least in areas where it makes the most sense like National Harbor, the close in suburbs and Oxon Hill. 

Theft has been an issue. I've seen bikes that had their hardware damaged so they can be stolen, and I've seen some used suspiciously (kids riding them in a parking lot for 2 hours, a couple in a Hooverville in the center leg tunnel) but that's a problem they're working. Reportedly the DoBi companies are going to meet with MPD on this issue. Jump reports less theft, because their bikes are so big and removing the GPS means removing the motor making them pretty hard to ride, but they have had a few stolen.

Another issue is keeping bikes in the right zones via geofencing. Some people have taken the bikes into their homes (leading companies to show up at 6am and ask for them back I've been told). Others have been left on the Mall or on Capitol grounds, and both are off limits. Using geofencing, companies should be able to fix this problem, but it may take time. Bikes could be designed to alarm if parked in the wrong place or their could be penalty charges or points. Alternatively, points or price reductions could be used to bring bikes to certain areas - crowdsourced rebalancing if you will. Jump is already doing this through the use of "hubs", which work as dockless stations. If a user leaves a bike in a hub, they get $1 of credit on their ride. By incentivizing users to put bikes in these hubs, it streamlines their operations and makes it easier for people without smartphones to find the bikes. 

Parking is also an issue, with some bikes being placed in less-than-ideal locations. We discussed this on the BAC and some ideas being kicked around were DoBi parking zones - painted boxes on the sidewalk and (more often) on the street where DoBis need to be parked  - or penalties for back parking. I like the first, but the 2nd may just be easier with the penalty assessed to require illegal parking. Under DC law

No person shall park a bicycle: (a) Upon a highway other than the roadway against the curb; or (b) Upon a sidewalk; except in a rack to support the bicycle, against a building, or at the curb in such a manner as to afford the least obstruction to pedestrian traffic.

Break that rule and pay a $25 fine that's just passed on to DC. Jump bikes have a built in U-lock that has to be used to end the ride, so they're more likely to be legally parked, something we should consider when the final permitting requirements are written. In addition, DoBi permit recipients should be required to pay a fee to add bike parking. We're going to need a lot more if we're going to get to 10% mode share and they should be required to pitch in on that.

I'm most excited about, and know more about, Jump than the others (I've only ridden Jump and MoBike at this point). I'm somewhat bullish on e-biking as a way to help more people bike for transportation and Jump has the potential to remove a lot of the barriers for that (price, fear etc..) possibly even serving as a "gateway drug" to e-biking. I've ridden them a few times and they're pretty fun, though as noted above, not price competitive with CaBi for frequent use. 

Jump doesn't have many bikes in the area right now because they only had a few weeks to get ready between the request going out and the start of permitting in September, but on Thursday they're having a launch party as they increase to 100 bikes. They hope to get to the permitting limit of 400 by the end of 2017. If they make it past the trial period, they'll likely add charging stations at the hubs. CaBi reportedly touches each bike once every 40 days (on average). Jump needs to touch theirs every 2 days. But charging stations will reduce the amount of maintenance they need. Users will likely get credit if they park their bikes at them.  This would also make Jump a dock/DoBi hybrid.

Jump is already learning a lot from their time here. They might redesign the bikes to make the basket less appealing as a seat for a buddy (warning: they aren't strong enough for this), for example.  And they're generating tons of trip data. Requirements to share, or make public, the trip data they generate should also be in the permitting requirements. 

Permitting requirements should also address bike quality. CaBis last an average of 7 years. Not sure if that's a good metric to shoot for, but the bikes need to be roadworthy and sustainable. 

Finally, DC should look at the regulations about e-bikes, especially if Jump is going to stick around. Right now they can't be ridden on trails or sidewalks. Mostly, they don't belong on sidewalks, but it means you can't legally and safely ride one across many of the Potomac and Anacostia Bridges. I believe the Mayor can just waive that in some cases (or we can just rely on good-old-fashioned non-enforcement) but it would be better with a regulatory modification. And since e-bikes don't count as bicycles, e-bike riders remain subject to the unfair contributory negligence provision exploited by drivers lawyers..  

Baltimore's bikeshare theft woes

Unfortunate news out of Baltimore from earlier this month

The manufacturer of the $2.36 million Baltimore Bike Share system said his company has never experienced the level of theft that caused officials to announce a temporary shutdown of the program to allow additional locking devices to be installed to the bike docks.

The bike-share program launched last fall with 200 bicycles at 20 stations and was supposed to grow to 500 bicycles at 50 stations in the spring. Instead, it has suffered so many thefts and maintenance backups that most of the bicycles are out of service. The program will close Sunday and reopen Oct. 15.

Officials have repeatedly declined to share figures of exactly how many bicycles have been stolen.

The bicycles are outfitted with GPS technology, so the stolen or abandoned bikes were usually recovered. But thefts and other non-returns of the bicycles had become such an issue that two maintenance employees were devoted solely to bike recovery, officials said.

Bipartisan group introduces the Bikeshare Transit Act of 2016

Congressman Earl Blumenauer (OR-03) and Congressman Vern Buchanan (FL-16), co-chairs of the Congressional Bike Caucus, reintroduced the Bikeshare Transit Act last month. This bipartisan legislation supports local bikeshare programs by helping communities access federal funds for bikeshare facilities and equipment.

I can't actually find the bill online, but an identical bill was introduced by the pair last year.

This bill makes a bikeshare project eligible to be an associated transit improvement project, including one carried out to facilitate a bicycle rental operation that makes bicycles available for public transportation, allows riders to pick up and drop off bicycles, serves a defined geographic area, and facilitates the transit of individuals between various points in the area. Public transportation capital projects shall include any project for the acquisition or replacement of bicycles and related equipment, including technology and vehicles needed to restock stations, and the construction of bicycle-related facilities to facilitate a bikeshare project. The bill also makes eligible for funds under the congestion mitigation air quality improvement program projects or programs that reduce demand for roads through bikesharing.

Meanwhile, another piece of bikeshare friendly legislation was reintroduced last month as well.

bikeshare is missing from pre-tax transit benefits that offer many commuters savings on transit passes. Last month, Reps. Joe Crowley (D – N.Y.) and Erik Paulsen (R – Minn.) introduced the “Bike to Work Act,” which would fix that gap and add bikeshare to the list of modes eligible for commuter benefits.

 

Hyattsville to try blended bikeshare

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. 

Bike sharing expands in College Park & University Park and to start soon in Howard County

We're still about 8 months away from the start of Capital Bikeshare in Prince George's County, but that doesn't mean it's a quite time for bikesharing in the Maryland suburbs. 

In early July, bikesharing will come to downtown Columbia, MD as was promised last year.

Connected by a three-mile loop, the BikeShare system will have 70 bikes across seven stations in Columbia, featuring standard eight-gear and electric-assist models. Stations will be located at Howard County General Hospital, Howard Community College, the Crescent development, Columbia Town Center, Lake Kittamaqundi, Oakland Mills Village Center and Blandair Park.

Chris Eatough, who was a leader in the Capital Bikeshare rollout in Arlington in 2010, is now Howard county's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, so they have experienced leadership on this. They're "pedelec" bikes come in both electric-assist and regular. They have timers on board to tell you how long you've had the bike and they all have GPS attached.

the county partnered with Bewegen Technologies to manufacture the bicycles and stations for the BikeShare program.

"We expect biking to grow as a mode of transportation here in Howard County," Eatough said. "The BikeShare will be helpful in that, because it's a new way of using bikes."

Memberships are now available online, where riders can sign up for yearly, monthly or one-time passes at $85, $15 or $2, respectively. Each pass includes the first 45 minutes of using the bikes, after which riders will be charged $2 every 30 minutes.

Riders who sign up for yearly passes before the launch earn founding member status and receive 60-minute rides and a commemorative water bottle. Members will get occasional customer surveys to fill out, Eatough said, so the department can learn more about bike riding patterns in the area.

The program will be monitored over a six-year period, costing approximately $750,000. Eatough said community partners are providing about $700,000, including $450,000 from the Horizon Foundation over the next three years, and the remaining $50,000 is coming from the county.

Viviane Lépinay-Thomas, a Bewegen Technologies representative, said station kiosks and bicycles are designed to keep track of how many trips are taken on each bike, its total distance traveled and GPS location.

"When you unlock a bike, you'll have a timer so you know how long you've been riding," she said. "It's a pretty smooth ride. For the electric assist, when you start pedaling, the motor kicks in and gives you an extra push. If you want to go uphill, it's going to help you get there faster and without breaking a sweat."

Bewegan also built the Baltimore system that opened last October and recently expanded to 50 stations. 

Meanwhile, College Park is again expanding its 17-station bike share program. 

The latest expansion includes five additional stations — two in University Park and three in College Park — and 28 new bikes distributed among those stations, said Zagster spokesman Jon Terbush. Two of the stations will be added to University Park on Friday, and another will be added on Berwyn Road in Jack Perry Plaza toward the end of June, Beavers said.

The system has been a success so far.

The program crossed the 24,000 ride mark less than a year after launching. This is now the second expansion since the initial launch — and further expansion is on the horizon to broaden mBike’s scope, and to increase its positive impact for the community and its utility to riders.

Hopefully it can coexist with CaBi

“We would like to be a part of a larger system such as Capital Bikeshare if they ever come to Prince George’s County,” University Park Mayor Len Carey said. “But the time to have it was probably two years ago.”

Riverdale Park is also considering joining the bike network, a town official said.

Pittsburgh Bikeshare reduced parking demand near stations by 2%

In addition to reducing congestion, bike-sharing can cause a modest reduction in the demand for parking. A recent working paper on Social Science Research Network (SSRN) by Konstantinos Pelechrinis at University of Pittsburgh and Beibei Li and Sean Qian at Carnegie Mellon University reports that a comparison of parking data and bikeshare data shows a very small reduction of car trips to places where a bike share station is added. 

To estimate the effect that bike share had on car trips, the researchers paired Shadyside’s bike dock data with parking meter data from [Shadyside and Squirrel Hill] neighborhoods.

The researchers measured the differences in parking rates in the month before and a month after the bike-share stations were installed in Shadyside (May 2015 and July 2015). The researchers then charted the hourly difference between parking events in Shadyside and Squirrel Hill.

Bike-share trips replaced at most about 69 car trips per day, out of 2,250 daily parking events in the neighborhood of Shadyside. This is a 2 percent decrease in parking demand (adjusted for the lost curb parking space for the installation of the bike docks) after the program’s launch in 2015.

The researchers estimate that level of trip replacement over a month would produce approximately 1,346 fewer car trips, 82.5 fewer gas gallons, 76,470 calories burnt, and 0.73 fewer metric tons of CO2 emissions from trips to Shadyside.

And that's just one neighborhood, for a newly installed system that is much smaller that Capital Bikeshare. CaBi likely is reducing trips by even more. While this seems like a study of something else - parking - than the one reported yesterday, its actually a complementary study. Both show that bikeshare can make a modest change in driving, reducing congestion and improving air quality. It creates a powerful argument for creating bike share systems, expanding them and shows - in part - why subsidizing them makes sense.