CapitalBikeshare.com is live and taking memberships!

[huffmanld]

Dear Tim,

OK, very impressive, and I want it all over Fairfax County as well–especially the Mount Vernon district. Lots of stuff to talk about, but let’s start with:

How come there’s absolutely no mention of Smartbike.dc, even though Capital Bikeshare seems to be taking over all of its stations? I don’t lose much, as my Smartbike subscription runs out Sept. 8th, when you guys are just getting going, but still…

The Post got the pricing wording wrong. I thought from its article that the regular price would be $50 and 50% off for early adopters. Instead, the regular price will be $75 and the discount’s only 30%.

And it seems a little odd that all the Arlington stations are in Crystal City. Is this because Crystal City’s still so spread out (in terms of the nearness of the places one needs to get to every day) in comparison to the Wilson Blvd. corridor that the need is much greater in Crystal City?

Regards,

Larry

[Tim Kelley]

Hi Larry, thanks for your comments. I think I can answer some of your questions.

The Capital Bikeshare program is replacing the Smartbike system. Capital Bikeshare contacted all current members of the Smartbike system through email yesterday giving them the option to opt into Capital Bikeshare with a free memberships that last through March.

Yes, you are correct. The normal annual membership price is $75, but for kickoff will only be $50. That’s significantly cheaper than other North American bikeshare systems (Minneapolis, Denver, Montreal…)

And lastly, a bikesharing system works best when stations can be clustered together. The Crystal City area is the initial focus of the system because of a fantastic public-private partnership through the generosity of the Crystal City BID. Expect to see the system quickly expanded to other parts of Arlington with a focus on the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[Author]

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