Dispatch #2 from D.C.: Capital Bikeshare

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I've always seen the promise of bike share. Ever since I first laid eyes on those beauties in Lyon, France, I thought that bike share would help transform Seattle into a place where biking is mainstream.  Since then, I've collaborated in meetings with a host of Seattle-area partners -- jurisdictions, businesses, academic institutions -- who want to make it happen.  We even got a small grant to start looking at which business model would make most sense.  Bike Share is in countless European cities -- and other cities like Montreal, Melborne, Denver, Minneapolis, are doing it, too.

It's one thing to be a supporter, though.  It's another to have ridden.

I vowed in my last dispatch to ride down Pennsylvania Avenue's new bike lanes on D.C.'s new Capital Bikeshare bikes.  And after a dozen meetings with congresspeople and their aides today (and then a side trip for a beer and a super-late lunch), that's exactly what I did.

Let me be honest: after a day of meetings and after the machine failed to spit out the code to unlock the bike from the dock, I had to call the customer service line.  I had just come from an Irish pub.  I did my best not to look like a tourist.  I was desperate.  But in 20 seconds, I was on my way.  Five dollars a day for unlimited use.  1,100 bikes and 110 stations.  I was soon speeding along with traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue heading toward the White House.  I was grinning.  I shifted into third.

I turned around and rode back to the same dock -- a joyride that isn't really what the system is for (or is it?)  I had a reception to go to, so this was just a test ride.  But after the reception, I had to head back to the hotel.  A D.C. friend, formerly a nonprofit champion in Seattle, showed me his phone: "This is where all the stations are. There are four left just around the block. Oh, and here's your destination. There's a station a block away."  Bike share mobile app: a perfect tool.

I was off.

It was easy.  It was fast.  It was cheap.  It was fun.  I even bumped into our advocacy director David Hiller randomly along the way.

A supporter before, I'm a believer now. And with National Bike Summit complete and only the evening parties to attend, I'm hopping back on a Capital Bikeshare bike in three minutes, as soon as I finish this post.  Really.

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