Falls Church CaBi?

Fairfax is planning to add stations in Reston but not this year. Maybe in a year or two. They have also mentioned Tysons Corner and Merrifield-Mosaic as possible locations, but even farther out on the timeline.

Arlington has considered a series of bike stations along the Lee Highway corridor to East Falls Church, but it seems like they are focusing on Columbia Pike and Shirlington in the latest expansion round. It’s on the radar though.

I haven’t heard anything about the City of Falls Church joining Capital Bikeshare. They would have to join in order to have any stations within the city limits.

There’s also the possibility that CaBi expansion in general will be delayed (beyond the current delays) because of the bankruptcy filing of Bixi, the Montreal company that supplies the bikes and stations. However, I don’t think there is a long-term threat to CaBi. Alta operates CaBi under contract with the local governments. Suppliers actually manufacture the bikes and stations, and provide them to Bixi (and eventually Alta and CaBi). If Bixi were to go under (which I don’t think will happen) or be spun off, the manufacturing could be taken over by a different entity, since the outside suppliers are already responsible for manufacturing the hardware. (Software issues seem to be behind the Bixi problems. They switched software providers, which led to problems with newer Alta-Bixi systems like Chicago and NYC. That resulted in delayed or withheld payments to Bixi.)

Anyway, if you are a resident of Falls Church, I’d suggest that you contact your local officials and voice your support for bikeshare. I’m sure the officials are aware of CaBi but they may not be aware of the level of local support for bike stations in Falls Church. You can also add bike station suggestions on the crowdsourcing map. There’s a link to the map on the CaBi site. (Go to the Station Map page. Then click on the “Suggest a Station Location” link above the main map.) Even though FC does not participate in CaBi, if there are a lot of votes and suggestions for FC stations on the crowdsourcing map, that can help to indicate the level of interest in FC bike stations.

@elbows 75618 wrote:

Hi. As a new user of CaBi, I’m realizing how helpful it would be if CaBi were in Falls Church. Just curious what the status of the discussion was there or if it had been discussed at all. Thanks.

FYI–the way Bikeshare works is that each jurisdiction owns and operates their part of the system. You would need to lobby the Fall Church government to bring it there!

Falls Church is kind of strange in that some government services are actually provided by Arlington or Fairfax. The Arlington circuit court includes Falls Church in its jurisdiction. The fire station that covers Falls Church is located in Arlington and staffed by Arlington firefighters. The Wikipedia page mentions “transport” as another service provided by Arlington, but I can’t find any cites on the FC or Arl gov’t sites. In various Arlington County board and agency meeting reports, I’ve seen budget items devoted to Falls Church matters. Fairfax apparently handles health and human services in Falls Church too.

I’m not sure if or how this would affect any decisions about CaBi. If FC were interested in joining, I think they would coordinate their program with Arlington, to allow for better connections in the network. Or they could reach an agreement to have Arlington administer a FC system, similar to the court and fire station arrangements. (Fairfax could be another option, but they aren’t members of CaBi either.)

I’m no expert on the City of Falls Church, but my understanding is they developed a comprehensive Bike and Pedestrian Plan, and then when some residents went bonkers about how the draft plan was going to take away their parking, city council withdrew it, disavowed it and no plan has ever been put forward again.

In other words, I would NOT expect them to embrace CaBi with open arms. But hey, times may have changed or I may be misinformed.

There is zero occurrence of the words “bikeshare” or “cabi” in the searchable City Council minutes for Falls Church City.

At the very least, EFC needs a big station. There are always tons of bikes parked there, and it’s super close to the new developments along Lee Hwy. Add in a few stations along Washington Blvd (Westover!!) and you’d have super easy connectivity between Ballston and EFC that would, I think, increase business in that area even more. I also think putting a station along the W&OD to bridge between EFC and either WFC or even just the Rt. 7/W&OD intersection would would be fantastic and increase multimodal commuting when people would otherwise just drive.

@TwoWheelsDC 75771 wrote:

At the very least, EFC needs a big station. There are always tons of bikes parked there, and it’s super close to the new developments along Lee Hwy. Add in a few stations along Washington Blvd (Westover!!) and you’d have super easy connectivity between Ballston and EFC that would, I think, increase business in that area even more. I also think putting a station along the W&OD to bridge between EFC and either WFC or even just the Rt. 7/W&OD intersection would would be fantastic and increase multimodal commuting when people would otherwise just drive.

We need to convince the Arlington County Board to come up with more money for Capital Bikeshare. There is a big gap between what Arlington’s Bikeshare folks would like the system to look like and what has been funded:

More detail at Arlington’s Bikeshare Transit Development Plan

Lee Highway is in the lead! (Of unmet CaBi demand…)