Is Capital Bikeshare moving semi-dockless?

[Yule]

Recent developments suggest Capital Bikeshare is now moving fast towards a semi-dockless model in its Lyft era. I am seeing a few real signs of this, including:

(1) their recent move to put “scan here to rent” stickers on every bike, which would allow them to be scanned and rented from anywhere;
(2) their announcement that the to-be-reintroduced electric bikes will be dock-optional; and
(3) the cancellation of the dock-based Bike Angles program (which I’ll post another thread about).
Shifting energy towards dockless may also explain the slowdown in their other services I’ve noticed over the past few months compared to previous years.

It sounds to me like someone at Lyft is using the re-introduction of eBikes to push the entire system towards being semi-dockless, possibly including the regular bikes, either now or later.

Anyone have further info? Thoughts?

As I longtime and regular CaBi user, I am against a move to semi-dockless.

Will post a reply with more thoughts on why, but for now, this:

I wonder if the people who made this decision actually use the CaBi system, have been able to observe how the system has worked. Because it sounds like a profit-driven decision rather than a system-health-based decision. IMO. Expressed another way, “penny wise, pound foolish!”

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