DCA CaBi Station

[Henry]

Has anyone on this forum used the station at National Airport for an actual flight to/from DC? We are looking for some testimonials for promotional efforts and have some questions about the luggage issues.

Send me a message here or email at henry.dunbar {at} bikearlington.com

Henry

[DCAKen]

I’ve used the station a couple of times when picking up a rental car at the airport. Before the station opened, this past Labor Day I used the Crystal City station and walked back to the airport for a 7 am Saturday flight to Chicago. I only had a backpack and a very small overnight bag.

[secstate]

Not yet, but I sure will in the future. I have biked to DCA a couple of times prior to the station opening. Having the CaBi e-bikes as an option will keep the sweat down prior to flying and eliminate worries about parking a bike overnight at the airport.

[Steve O]

@Henry 206004 wrote:

Has anyone on this forum used the station at National Airport for an actual flight to/from DC? We are looking for some testimonials for promotional efforts and have some questions about the luggage issues.

Send me a message here or email at henry.dunbar {at} bikearlington.com

Henry

Yes, I used it a week ago to get home from a flight. Email me.
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[Yule]

It’s about time!

Am glad to see the airport station finally up. A much more important station, in principle, than many of the other new ones.

Bikeshare is a great resource. I sing its praises to all who will listen. But sometimes it has been discouragingly sluggish in expanding, in putting in needed stations in certain key places. In other words, the airport station should have been in place years ago. I think I recall it was talked about in the mid-2010s as to be up in the late 2010s. Finally it was up and running by January 2021. If the idea was good and the need was there, why did it take so many years? We can/should do better. (Define ‘we’ as you like, for everyone involved can pass the buck.)

(The Gravelly Point Station is another obvious one. It only finally went in, I think, in late 2019. There is still no Arlington Cemetery station, which is baffling and shows the inherent problems of multiple bureaucracies all doing jealous-fiefdom-guarding, or so I assume is the problem. Dockless go to Arl Cem frequently. The demand is obvious. The space is plentiful. I recall conversations in 2017 with someone who loved CaBi but had one big criticism which restricted use: Too few stations along the bike trails, pre-Gravelly Point, pre-Roosevelt Island stations, and of c ourse the conspicuous absence of a station at Arlington Cemetery.)

As for the DCA “Reagan National Airport” station:

It would also be nice if, somehow, the station could have gotten even closer to the terminal while maintaining reasonable safety — not having users have to walk through the parking garage. (That is, of course, a logistics question and many will say too much to ask. I know Bikeshare can’t just bulldoze its way through places, of course, but just saying.) The same problem applies to some of the other Metro stations. Virginia Square is great because it’s next to the elevator, but many others are quite far off. In other words, if people are to use this service as hoped, to connect with other forms of transportation (in this case, airplane), it’s best to get as close as possible.

[Zack]

Hi Yule, unfortunately, we experienced a multi-year procurement delay thanks to our state DOT and that is why National Airport and several other stations were delayed for as long as they were.

While we would have loved to install the station closer to the terminal, as you noted, we cannot just bulldoze our way through, especially on land which is not owned by the County. Also, there is not an intuitive way to bike from the Mt Vernon Trail to the terminal anywhere else on the property.

Over the years, we try to move stations closer to the Metro entrances like we have done at East Falls Church Metro. We have two more on the calendar for installation in the next few weeks, one at Clarendon Metro and one at Rossyln Metro.

Regarding Arlington National Cemetery, we have identified a station location and hope to have more news on that site soon.

[DCAKen]

Zack, are you working with the MWAA to put signage in at the airport directing people how to get to the bikeshare station?

[Steve O]

@DCAKen 210530 wrote:

Zack, are you working with the MWAA to put signage in at the airport directing people how to get to the bikeshare station?

There is a small working group of members from the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee that is working with MWAA on a number of bike-related improvements. This is on the list.

The good news is that the representatives from MWAA seem sincerely interested in improving bike parking and access at DCA. Our meetings to date have been encouraging.

[secstate]

We should make a slick bike propaganda video to publicize the station.

I had to travel for family reasons a few weeks back. It took me 25 minutes on an e-CaBi to reach the airport from Mt. Pleasant early in the morning (return trip was longer since no e-bikes were available and there was quite a bit of traffic, but let’s not talk about that). I wasn’t even traveling that light; strapped a duffel to the front and wore a backpack. Really a great option, both time-wise and to get in a little exercise in before a long day of travel.

The station was easy to find from the trail but a little tricker to find when exiting the airport.

[Judd]

@secstate 210534 wrote:

The station was easy to find from the trail but a little tricker to find when exiting the airport.

I have gotten lost on every single return flight to DCA.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Yule]

@Zack 210528 wrote:

Regarding Arlington National Cemetery, we have identified a station location and hope to have more news on that site soon.

That is great news.

@Zack 210528 wrote:

Over the years, we try to move stations closer to the Metro entrances like we have done at East Falls Church Metro. We have two more on the calendar for installation in the next few weeks, one at Clarendon Metro and one at Rossyln Metro.[/quote]

The East Falls Church station move (in 2019?) was a good one. The old location across the street next to the highway entrance was not particularly useful to anyone for inter-modal purposes. The new location by the Metro entrance I remember thinking showed signs people did indeed see the same problems I was seeing. Whoever pushed that, I salute you.

If the proposed direct pedestrian bridge from Crystal City to the airport ever comes, the airport bikeshare station would presumably get more interest, traffic, and opportunity for an even better location.

[Yule]

@secstate 210534 wrote:

The station was easy to find from the trail but a little tricker to find when exiting the airport.

From what I understand about airport planning, they’ll run experiments where people unfamiliar with the airport are plopped down somewhere and given destinations without instructions and see how well they can navigate to them from signs. See what the people do. Those who get lost or otherwise take longer to find the place is a sign for more investment in signs. The trivial cost of extra signs pays off in the long run for smooth airport operations. I wonder how much easier it is t find the Abingdon Plantation ruins historic site (a little hard to find but relatively well signed) than the bikeshare station?

Now that you raised the issue, I realize only very rarely seen a “This way to Capital Bikeshare” sign anywhere (I can only remember a handful in Alexandria). The airport would seem to be the place for them if anywhere. And though the airport is clearly a special case maybe there is more place for such signs elsewhere. I am thinking the stations on/around the Mall which get high tourist traffic. If they allow stations themselves, surely they’d allow a few signs.

[LhasaCM]

@Yule 210547 wrote:

Now that you raised the issue, I realize only very rarely seen a “This way to Capital Bikeshare” sign anywhere (I can only remember a handful in Alexandria). The airport would seem to be the place for them if anywhere. And though the airport is clearly a special case maybe there is more place for such signs elsewhere. I am thinking the stations on/around the Mall which get high tourist traffic. If they allow stations themselves, surely they’d allow a few signs.

DC has some signage around the city for nearby bikeshare stations, usually when they’re near but not obvious/on more frequently used bike routes. For example, there’s a sign near 1st and G Place NE to direct people to the CaBi station one block west on N. Capitol.

[Yule]

@LhasaCM 210548 wrote:

DC has some signage around the city for nearby bikeshare stations, usually when they’re near but not obvious/on more frequently used bike routes. For example, there’s a sign near 1st and G Place NE to direct people to the CaBi station one block west on N. Capitol.

That is good to know/hear.

I imagine the government authority which controls a given space might be the main reason “Capital Bikeshare this way” signs might go up or not in cases they might help.

In the case of national parks grounds I think they’re much more hesitant to put up any such signs. In the case of the airport, there’s going to be some other layer of bureaucracy.

It’s for this need to juggle so many bureaucracies and layers of government that I am continually impressed by CaBi’s successes in running a more-or-less smooth system. (Any of us who know the system well and its layout in various areas get a feel for which local/city/county/government/park authorities seem to be welcoming, and which…less welcoming / less interested, just by instinct of where stations are allowed to be located.)

I don’t know that I have ever seen a “This was to Capital Bikeshare” physical sign anywhere in Arlington on the street but maybe they exist.

A digitial version of these, which some would say is superior to a simple street sign, started appearing in the late 2010s. I am talking about those “transit screens” you’d see in places like the new Ballston Mall, and libraries, and some Metro entrances, and even I think some high-end apartment building lobbies. The screens that inform you of all your options in the immediate area: Bus, metro, CaBi bikeshare, other bikeshare, e-scooters, Uber/Lyft rideshare — what’s available, how long to walk to each. For CaBi they told how many bikes were available. I wonder how successful these were.

[Judd]

@Yule 210549 wrote:

In the case of national parks grounds I think they’re much more hesitant to put up any such signs. In the case of the airport, there’s going to be some other layer of bureaucracy.

Putting up signs on NPS property typically requires going through a compliance process to assess the impact on the things that NPS is charged with preserving including viewsheds. There’s understandably a reluctance to do a ton of work to install a single sign.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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