Megan Kanagy Capital Projects Manager

What is Bikesharing?

Flickr images: ambimb, infomatique, paytonc, midnightglory

Miami: Deco Bike

Dublin: dublinbikes

Paris: Velib

Hangzhou:Public Bicycle Transportation

• Population: 600,000 (Region: 4 million)

• Area: 70 square miles• Median Household

Income: $60,000• Daytime population:

1,000,000• 50% drive alone to work• 35% of households do

not own a car

Washington, DC Context

What is Capital Bikeshare?

The Bike

The Station

Pricing

The Network•1800+ bikes

•189 stations

How Did We Get here?

DC’s First Bikesharing System: SmartBike

• Owned by the jurisdictions, operated by Alta Bikeshare

• Jurisdictions join system through MWCOG rider and MOU

• Each jurisdictions pays for their stations and corresponding # of bikes

• Year-round operations

Capital Bikeshare Framework

• D.C. portion of upfront capital was funded by $6.4 million from FHWA CMAQ funds.

• Arlington portion was funded by $800,000 from combination of State, County and private sector

• Funding for system expansion has been with CMAQ funds for both DC and Arlington.

• Operating expenses nearly covered by system revenue in DC.

Capital Bikeshare Funding

Station Location Planning Process

Station Location Lessons Learned

Image source: NPS

Membership Programs and Marketing•Social media!

•Branding ties in with other transit modes in DC – Circulator bus and streetcar

•Corporate membership program

•Winter Warrior contest and Reverse Rider Rewards

•Partnership with Bank on DC

•Partnership with hotels and conferences

System Data

April 2011 – Living Social Deal

July 2012 – 25,000+ annual members

# Cumulative Annual Members

July 2012 – 200,000+ trips per month

# Trips per Month

• 1 million rides in year 1

• 1.8 million rides in year 2

Capital Bikeshare User Survey•Administered in November 2011

•Report published June 2012

•Response rate of 31% of annual users

•Report available at Capital Bikeshare website

User Survey Highlights•More than half of recent trips were for non-work purposes

•83% of respondents said they were more likely to patronize a business that was accessible by Capital Bikeshare

•Members saved average of $891 annually on travel

•Members who had a vehicle available each reduced 523 driving miles per year

•56% of respondents reduced their use of taxi, 47% reduced Metrorail, and 39% reduced bus use.

Even Kevin Spacey Loves Capital Bikeshare!

Overall Challenges and Successes

Challenges• Rebalancing operations - scale

• Broadening the demographics of members and increasing usage at outlying stations

• Outreach to lower-income neighborhoods

• Keeping station maps updated while expanding system

• Perceived safety issues and helmet use, especially for new riders and visitors

• Sponsorship and advertising

• Not seen as legitimate transportation yet

Successes• System launch and early sense of public ownership

• Ridership continues to outpace all expectations

• Smooth operations from Alta

• Bikes and stations are holding up well

• Continued system expansion within DC and other jurisdictions

• Key part of a resurgence in cycling in DC - visibility

• Fills gaps in other transit modes – flexibility

• Fun!

New bikesharing report from FHWA

http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/promote/bikeshareintheus.pdf

For More Info on Bikesharing

Megan KanagyDowntownDC BIDmegan@downtowndc.org202-661-7578