DC Region Thinks Bigger for Bike-Sharing

Metro DC has a vision for a regional network of shared bicycle infrastructure, one that would connect not only Arlington and Washington, but Alexandria, College Park and Fairfax County.

The region has applied for $12 million from the federal TIGER II program to expand its soon-to-be-launched Capital Bikeshare program to serve the wider DC area. The funding would expands current plans for 1,110 bikes at 114 stations in Arlington and Washington to encompass 3,578 bikes at 431 stations extending well into Maryland and Virginia. The expansion would make DC’s bike-sharing program the largest in the country by far.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood signals his approval for DC bikesharing. Photo: Commuter Page Blog

Project advocates like Paul DeMaio, of MetroBikes, LLC, writing for the Commuter Page Blog, are excited to see the project taking on a bigger scope:

While (Metro Washington Council of Governments) was
putting together this grant application with the assistance of the
jurisdictions, it was great to see the region coming together over
bike-sharing and bicycling. With many other transport needs, the region
chose this project as being our collective future. Now that’s exciting.

The
TIGER II grant application is a follow-up to the region’s TIGER I grant
application last year which was unsuccessful at securing funding due to
the high demand of projects for the amount of available funding.
Hopefully, this time the application will meet with better luck.

Also on the Network: Kaid Benfield at NRDC’s Switchboard features a video showing how to plan a suburb using sustainability criteria; AK Bike Ped Alliance examines how the interests of cyclists and pedestrians were ignored on a $2 million road project; and Cyclicio.us follows three bicyclists preparing to challenge the legality of a bicycling ban in Black Hawk, Colorado.