In 2008 DC became the first city in North America to have a bikesharing system. The pilot program that began then was small, with only 100 bikes. On Monday, DC and Arlington launched a new full-blown system that is the largest in the US so far.
Capital Bikeshare uses the same system as Bixi in Montreal, and has 1,100 bikes at over 110 stations. It is the first phase of a system that will eventually encompass several thousand bikes.
Most of the pictures are mine, but to complete the narrative I've used a few from the DC DOT. Pictures are mine except where noted.
Here are a few pictures (out of a
set of 41) of the first station being installed, in the Crystal City area of Arlington.
The truck arrives:
Workers begin moving the components to the sidewalk:
They place the first piece:
Placing the second piece:
Shoving the third piece into position:
Placing the solar cells and hooking up the electronics:
The completed station:
Now fast forward a week or so and cross the river into DC, for the official launch on Monday morning. There was a launch ceremony and a group ride to the first cluster of stations, using the initial roll-out of bikes.
(Photo not mine. Source: DDOT)
(Photo not mine. Source: DDOT)
Note the new center bikeway on Pennsylvania Avenue:
(Photo not mine. Source: DDOT)
At Monday night's Nationals baseball game the usual race of bobble-head presidents became a bicycle race:
(Photo not mine. Source: DDOT)
And yesterday, for the first time, I passed a fully-stocked station on the street in DC:
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