D.C. rolls out new bike-share system

Washington, D.C., recently launched the nation’s largest bike-sharing system, a revamp of a system the city tried to implement in 2008 that never caught on, according to media reports.

Capital Bikeshare, a public-private partnership funded by public fees and maintained by private companies, debuted in the District and Arlington County, Virginia, on Sept. 20. The program involves more than 1,000 bikes at more than 100 kiosks, and allows users to pay a $50 annual fee or a $5 rental fee per day to use the bikes. It’s modeled after a successful program in Montreal, Canada, that modeled its program after a system in Lyon, Paris—one of the most successful bike-share programs in the world.

The District launched SmartBike in 2008, but it didn’t catch on due to poor advertising and strict subscription policies, which required users to pay $40 a year to use the bikes and did not provide options for tourists.