Record-breaking days on CaBi

[Rootchopper]

Those bloody CaBis were all over the place. It made it really hard to drive to the cherry blossoms. DC should do something!

[cvcalhoun]

And would the “something” involve banning driving? After all, the CaBis wouldn’t be an issue if the entire street were available for their use, but driving would be even more of an issue if everyone now on a CaBi were in a car instead.

@Rootchopper 82407 wrote:

Those bloody CaBis were all over the place. It made it really hard to drive to the cherry blossoms. DC should do something!

[chris_s]

It’s insane that DC doesn’t close at least a lane of the Kutz bridge for the festival. I was down there last Wednesday and it was crazy trying to walk across that bridge with kids. I doubt 2 strollers can actually pass each other.

[Phatboing]

There were 4-5 CaBis in a pile at the bike racks near the Natural History museum yesterday. Not locked or nothin’, even. Don’t they get stolen? At the very least, someone could have taken the bike, puttered about town the entire day, and run up a big bill.

[PotomacCyclist]

@cvcalhoun 82408 wrote:

And would the “something” involve banning driving? After all, the CaBis wouldn’t be an issue if the entire street were available for their use, but driving would be even more of an issue if everyone now on a CaBi were in a car instead.

I think he was kidding about the CaBi traffic.

[PotomacCyclist]

@Phatboing 82410 wrote:

There were 4-5 CaBis in a pile at the bike racks near the Natural History museum yesterday. Not locked or nothin’, even. Don’t they get stolen? At the very least, someone could have taken the bike, puttered about town the entire day, and run up a big bill.

Even if the bikes don’t get stolen, the user is still likely to run up a large tab if they leave the bike undocked for a few hours while they visit the museums. Most people seem to understand the pricing structure. The terms are spelled out in large type on each bike station. But occasionally, you’ll see a complaint from a visitor who is completely surprised by the fee structure. They will post an angry message on the CaBi Facebook page.

CaBi tries to be accommodating but I don’t think they will always remove the overage charges. Sometimes other users will post a photo of the price info from a station kiosk, to point out that the charges are not hidden.

I had a few visitors ask me about how CaBi works as I rode near some stations this month. I’m always glad to provide info about the system to new users. I always include a caution about keeping each trip under 30 minutes, to avoid add-on fees to the daily membership fee. Most of them seem to understand this already, after reading the info that is posted on every kiosk.

But a few people just ignore the large print and leave the bikes locked up to regular non-CaBi bike racks, or ride around for hours at a time without redocking the bike. C’est la vie.

EDIT – Some visitors also understand the price structure but don’t care. They are on vacation and a $6 add-on bike fee is worth the experience of riding around the National Mall or the Mount Vernon Trail for 90 minutes. ($14 for a 119-min. trip)

[PotomacCyclist]

The garbage cans were overflowing too:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/mounds-of-trash-take-the-bloom-off-cherry-blossom-festival/2014/04/13/ddf016ba-c349-11e3-b574-f8748871856a_story.html

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5214[/ATTACH]

[consularrider]

Note how much of that trash are the foam food containers, probably the box lunches the busloads bring in. They sould be require to police their own trash and haul it back out again. Pack it in, Pack it out! 😡

[cyclingfool]

@Phatboing 82410 wrote:

There were 4-5 CaBis in a pile at the bike racks near the Natural History museum yesterday. Not locked or nothin’, even. Don’t they get stolen? At the very least, someone could have taken the bike, puttered about town the entire day, and run up a big bill.

@PotomacCyclist 82415 wrote:

Even if the bikes don’t get stolen, the user is still likely to run up a large tab if they leave the bike undocked for a few hours while they visit the museums. Most people seem to understand the pricing structure. The terms are spelled out in large type on each bike station. But occasionally, you’ll see a complaint from a visitor who is completely surprised by the fee structure. They will post an angry message on the CaBi Facebook page.

On a somewhat related note, when I was riding home along Potomac Avenue in Alexandria last week one afternoon, an SUV was parked in front of some of the new townhomes, back open. I saw a couple very non-shady looking people trying to maneuver a bike out of the back. At first, I thought, “The linear park by the train tracks here is nice, but I’m not sure I’d consider it a destination worth driving to in order to ride.” Then I realized that the bike they were maneuvering out of the back was a CaBi bike. I have no idea how or why a CaBi bike ended up being taken out of a car at a point where the nearest station is a mile away.

Anyway, I’m assuming they exceeded the 30 minute check out time, but obviously whatever their use, it was most likely not exactly what the system was designed for.

[elbows]

@consularrider 82458 wrote:

Note how much of that trash are the foam food containers, probably the box lunches the busloads bring in. They sould be require to police their own trash and haul it back out again. Pack it in, Pack it out! 😡

I think DC (and others) should go with the polystrene ban. There is just no need for all the waste for one stupid meal.
http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/new-york-city-bans-styrofoam.html

[PotomacCyclist]

@cyclingfool 82465 wrote:

On a somewhat related note, when I was riding home along Potomac Avenue in Alexandria last week one afternoon, an SUV was parked in front of some of the new townhomes, back open. I saw a couple very non-shady looking people trying to maneuver a bike out of the back. At first, I thought, “The linear park by the train tracks here is nice, but I’m not sure I’d consider it a destination worth driving to in order to ride.” Then I realized that the bike they were maneuvering out of the back was a CaBi bike. I have no idea how or why a CaBi bike ended up being taken out of a car at a point where the nearest station is a mile away.

Anyway, I’m assuming they exceeded the 30 minute check out time, but obviously whatever their use, it was most likely not exactly what the system was designed for.

That’s odd. I’ve read a post from someone who couldn’t find an empty dock late at night in Capitol Hill, so she took the CaBi bike home overnight. Then she explained to CaBi and tried to modify the add-on fees. I think they checked the station/dock info and may have worked to reduce the extra fees.

But in this case, the couple were driving with the CaBi bike in the afternoon. I agree that it doesn’t seem likely that a bike thief is going to stop at the new townhouses on Potomac Ave. Those residences are fairly pricey ($600,000 to $1.1 million according to the Pulte website). Hard to imagine that someone living there is going to jeopardize his/her career and standing just to steal a CaBi bike. Also hard to imagine an outsider driving there as part of a CaBi theft scheme.

Maybe they drove to Potomac Yard-Arlington and picked up a bike so that they could ride it around Potomac Ave. It’s a long walk to the nearest bike station. But even that scenario is a little strange. Maybe they are confused as newcomers to the area. (Those units are relatively new, so none of those people have been there that long.) Why not drive to the CaBi station and park the car, then check out a bike and ride that around before docking it back at the same station and picking up the car? I guess we may never know.

[PotomacCyclist]

MetroRail also saw very high demand, with the highest weekend numbers since 2010:

http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=5700

At one point on Saturday, 45 percent of all CaBi bikes were in use at the same time. The weekend MARC trains (a new service that began in December) were standing-room only on Saturday.

http://www.wtop.com/109/3602316/Records-set-for-DC-travel-this-weekend

[consularrider]

Well, it didn’t hurt that we had the best weather for peak cherry blossoms in several years.

[Author]

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