Washington, D.C., Expands Bike-Sharing Program

Washington, D.C., the first American city to launch a bike-sharing program, continues to endear itself to those on two wheels by announcing that it will replace SmartBike, a system with 120 bikes and 10 stations, with a new bike-sharing system that that will offer 1,100 bikes and 114 stations in the District and next-door Arlington County. The new system is modeled after Montreal's succesful Bixi bike system, which Andrew wrote about in February.

Treehugger has more details on the upgrade:

"The new system will allow a wider range of membership opportunities. Annual memberships will cost $80, double the current SmartBike rate of $40, though for a much better service. People can also purchase monthly memberships for $30 or daily ones for $5. All memberships allow unlimited bike rentals, free for the first 30 minutes with usage fees (levels not yet specified) after 30 minutes."

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And the system could get better. According to Streetsblog, the District is applying for fuderal funding to double the size of the new system. News of the expansion follows a string of good news for bike-sharing nationwide: Denver recently launched a 500-bike system and both Boston and Minneapolis are preparing to open 1,000-bike systems later in the year.

Photo (cc) by Flickr user Pedal_Power_Pete via Treehugger\n