Suboptimal South Arlington station placement
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- This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 6 months ago by
elbows.
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June 16, 2015 at 2:58 am #1032179
scoot
ParticipantHmm… there is already another station pretty close to the south (at Columbia Pike and Walter Reed), but none to the north. So the location makes sense from a coverage perspective. On the other hand, there’s probably much less demand north of 8th St S, because that’s mostly low-density residential.
Also, Penrose Square needs a closer CaBi station. It’s midway between the stations at Walter Reed and Courthouse, but is not super convenient to either. Plus both of those stations are on the opposite side of the Pike from the square. I’m not sure where the best spot would be. For marketing/visibility, somewhere between the fountains and the Pike/Barton intersection would be great. But the Pike isn’t the most attractive place to ride, plus you’d be starting at an elevation disadvantage to head either east or west. You could ride through the Giant garage to reach Adams and then 9th, though. 9th and Barton is convenient to a calmer ride on 9th Street, but building shade could be an issue for powering the kiosks.
June 16, 2015 at 3:28 am #1032180PotomacCyclist
ParticipantRe Penrose Square, the Arlington CaBi Expansion Map shows a station for the 2017 expansion round at 9th S. & S. Wayne St. That’s just one block away from Penrose Square.
I don’t know about the timing though. There is one station marked for the 2014 expansion round that still hasn’t been added yet. It’s probably the result of the equipment supply problem that started with the Bixi bankruptcy.
The system operator, Motivate, is now manufacturing bikeshare bikes themselves (or working with a different supplier). They seem to be focusing on a big expansion for Citi Bike in NYC. I don’t know if that’s taking away the focus from expansion in other bikeshare systems. I hope not. Motivate is now backed by a large real estate firm. I thought that once the supply problem was resolved, they could proceed with expansion at multiple systems, including Capital Bikeshare.
I think Citi Bike will get a big shipment of new bikes in a couple weeks, though I don’t remember the exact dates. I think I posted them on the other thread, about the new bikeshare bikes. I hope this means that new bikes and stations will be available for CaBi as well.
Alexandria posted an update about their planned expansion. They only said that Potomac Yard (among other neighborhoods) would get new stations and bikes sometime this year. What does that mean? July? September? December?
June 16, 2015 at 12:41 pm #1032187Tim Kelley
Participant@scoot 118158 wrote:
Hmm… there is already another station pretty close to the south (at Columbia Pike and Walter Reed), but none to the north. So the location makes sense from a coverage perspective.
Bingo! Here’s the explanation from the guy who works on station placement:
“There is a station about a block south of the destinations he mentions, so we installed the Walter Reed & 8th station a block further north so as to not have these two stations too close. While the Library and Career Center are great destinations, there’s also all the apartments and houses north of 8th St S that we’re serving.”
August 31, 2015 at 8:41 pm #1036820Drewdane
Participant@Tim Kelley 118168 wrote:
Bingo! Here’s the explanation from the guy who works on station placement:
“There is a station about a block south of the destinations he mentions, so we installed the Walter Reed & 8th station a block further north so as to not have these two stations too close. While the Library and Career Center are great destinations, there’s also all the apartments and houses north of 8th St S that we’re serving.”
I wonder if that’s why the kiosks closest to Federal Triangle Metro are both placed about as suboptimally as one could imagine for Metro customers. One “hidden” behind the Reagan building on the opposite end of the block from Metro and the other way over on 10th Street. Neither station is particularly convenient for Metro users (yes, I put in a request for a kiosk closer to the entrance via the crowdsource map).
August 31, 2015 at 8:44 pm #1036822Participant@Drewdane 123223 wrote:
I wonder if that’s why the kiosks closest to Federal Triangle Metro are both placed about as suboptimally as one could imagine for Metro customers. One “hidden” behind the Reagan building on the opposite end of the block from Metro and the other way over on 10th Street. Neither station is particularly convenient for Metro users (yes, I put in a request for a kiosk closer to the entrance via the crowdsource map).
Check this page for other criteria for stations: http://www.bikearlington.com/pages/bikesharing/planned-arlington-stations/
And it also comes down to whose property it’s on. I can’t speak those specific DC stations….
October 19, 2015 at 1:57 pm #1039721elbows
ParticipantI’d like to note that I don’t think this station is used much. It almost always has 6 or 7 bikes in it whereas the Walter Reed/Pike station is used much more. Maximizing coverage is nice, but it is more important that a station be used. I would venture that for being a block south, this station would be used at least 50% more for little difference in coverage.
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