Capital Bikeshare
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| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Owner | Arlington, Alexandria, District of Columbia, Montgomery County, Fairfax County |
| Area served | Washington, D.C.; Arlington, Virginia; Alexandria, Virginia; Fairfax County, Virginia; Montgomery County, Maryland |
| Locale | Washington metropolitan area |
| Transit type | Bicycle sharing system |
| Number of stations | 480+ |
| Daily ridership | 5,700+ |
| Annual ridership | 2,100,000+ |
| Website | capitalbikeshare.com |
| Operation | |
| Began operation | 2010 |
| Operator(s) | Motivate |
| Number of vehicles | 3,700+ |
Capital Bikeshare (also abbreviated CaBi) is a bicycle sharing system that serves Washington, D.C.; Arlington County, Virginia; the city of Alexandria, Virginia; Montgomery County, Maryland and Fairfax County, Virginia. It has more than 440 stations and 3,700 bicycles, all owned by these local governments and operated in a public-private partnership with Motivate International. Opened in September 2010, the system was the largest bike sharing service in the United States until New York City's Citi Bike began operations in May 2013.
The SmartBike DC bike sharing service, a predecessor to Capital Bikeshare, debuted in 2008 with 10 stations and 120 bicycles. It was the first of its kind in the United States.D.C. Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein came into office four months later and he eager to expand it, but found the private partner had a "lackluster commitment." Because the agreement specifically prohibited DDOT from paying for anything related to SmartBike, an expansion required DDOT to renegotiate the contract. But in his first meeting with Clear Channel he found that Clear Channel believed they had gotten a bad deal on the original contract that created SmartBike; that following their purchase by Bain Capital they were no longer interested in "municipal street furniture" and that they had neither desire nor obligation to expand the program. In addition, it was difficult and expensive to install new stations, because they required the local utility company to bring electricity to each station. As a result, Klein chose to end the program and instead work with Arlington County, Virginia, to build a new, regional bikesharing program to be called Capital Bikeshare.
Capital Bikeshare was to be owned by the local governments and operated in a public-private partnership with a private operator. Alta Bike Share received the operations contract. Planning and implementation costs for the new system totaled $5 million.
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