We have bicycles

October 26, 2010 6:53 AM

Followup: We got our bike station.

I can now pick up a bike a few blocks from home and drop it off a few blocks from work. Membership is still at the $50 discounted annual rate. Nifty.

posted by MrMoonPie to MetaFilter-Related at 6:53 AM (30 comments total)

Good news, everyone!
posted by Askiba at 6:59 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yes! Although I have at least two bikes of my own, I signed up to be able to go station-to-station and not have worry about leaving a bike locked outside. Also, I would love for Capital Bikeshare to prosper. The equivalent program in London is supposedly going to turn a profit in two years.
posted by exogenous at 7:00 AM on October 26, 2010

Some photos of the new station.
posted by exogenous at 7:02 AM on October 26, 2010

Glad to see this worked out in the end. The ferocity of the debate against that station was insane. Neighborhood/anti-* politics at their worst (and really not reflective of my experiences with local politics in Capitol Hill, which tend to be fairly civil and level-headed compared to most places).

$50 memberships end this week, and the price will go up to $75 afterward.

_{Can we also talk about how wonderful GGW is?}
posted by schmod at 7:04 AM on October 26, 2010

Good news, everyone!

Jesus, I knew Planet Express weren't doing well in this economy, but this is ridiculous.
posted by griphus at 7:05 AM on October 26, 2010

schmod, I think we were at the same meeting. The reasons against installing the bike station were ridiculous, though I'm glad Commissioner Alberti confessed that his opposition was primarily to the NE corner neighborhood being treated as second class citizens when the proposed site was moved from the SE corner.

And yes, GGW is great.
posted by exogenous at 7:12 AM on October 26, 2010

Can we also talk about how wonderful GGW is?

Actually, I was thinking about starting a new blog called Greater Greater Greater Washington.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 8:17 AM on October 26, 2010

Huzzah!
posted by peeedro at 8:19 AM on October 26, 2010

Actually, I was thinking about starting a new blog called Greater Greater Greater Washington.

Only after I start Unsuck Unsuck DC Metro.
posted by schmod at 8:23 AM on October 26, 2010

not reflective of my experiences with local politics in Capitol Hill, which tend to be fairly civil and level-headed compared to most places

No fooling, my wife, who used to work for the city government doing planning in Ward 6, quit her job rather than continue to face the vitriolic personal attacks (threats even) she received almost daily from Capitol Hill residents who were mostly whining about such important topics as a sidewalk project in front of their townhouse being delayed by a few weeks, a treebox having higher/shorter than code border, or new lines painted on a street slightly altering a traffic pattern (I'm not exaggerating).
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 8:29 AM on October 26, 2010

Only after I start Unsuck Unsuck DC Metro.

I can't decide between King of Petworth and Not DCist.
posted by exogenous at 8:31 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

I wish I could use it right now--bummed that I have to wait for snail-mail.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:41 AM on October 26, 2010

not reflective of my experiences with local politics in Capitol Hill, which tend to be fairly civil and level-headed compared to most places

Really? Capitol Hill is so NIMBY that they even have signs up protesting against the construction of a nursery school. I guess they're thinking, "We don't want those degenerate toddlers messing up our neighborhood!" But I don't think this is limited to Capitol Hill -- it seems like every neighborhood in DC is bizarrely against anything good or new, from restaurants in Bloomingdale to mariachis in Mt. Pleasant. I think it's a big contributor to DC's general suckitude.
posted by yarly at 9:10 AM on October 26, 2010

it seems like every neighborhood in DC is bizarrely against anything good or new, from restaurants in Bloomingdale to mariachis in Mt. Pleasant. I think it's a big contributor to DC's general suckitude

DC is full of transients who only expect to be here a few years and can't be bothered to do anything constructive towards improving long-term livability. As a consequence, neighborhood loudmouths can easily dominate local politics. Going to ANC meetings and making your desires known to your councilmember is infinitely more effective than bitching on the internet.
posted by exogenous at 9:27 AM on October 26, 2010

Going to ANC meetings and making your desires known to your councilmember is infinitely more effective than bitching on the internet.

My view is that cities are competing for my business (i.e., taxes), and that as a citizen-consumer it's more gratifying, expedient, and effective to complain to the internet and then move to Philadelphia, than it is to get involved in my ANC.
posted by yarly at 9:38 AM on October 26, 2010

it seems like every neighborhood in DC is bizarrely against anything good or new.

I once saw a flyer gathering neighbors to protest the plan of a local pharmacy to sell beer and wine because the store would--and I'm not making this up--"compete on price."
posted by Partial Law at 9:40 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

I respectfully retract my previous statement, and ask you to move up to 6C04, where it is all sunshine, roses, and neighbors who are just happy that people don't get shot as much as they used to.
posted by schmod at 9:47 AM on October 26, 2010

WELL, OBVIOUSLY, there's a cyclist in Lincoln Park...
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:05 AM on October 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Mazel Tov?
posted by TooFewShoes at 1:05 PM on October 26, 2010

Oh look--there's the very site in the background of a meetup picture.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:15 PM on October 26, 2010

so excited to move there!
posted by k8t at 8:42 PM on October 26, 2010

And we have two now by Union Station (map).
posted by exogenous at 1:06 PM on October 27, 2010

Speaking of Hill East, it looks like the new Census data will likely result in redistricting. My friends and neighbors who are concerned over a Vince Gray mayorship are going to shit their pants when they realized Marion Barry might be their councilman!
posted by exogenous at 6:27 AM on October 28, 2010

Hey! I rode a bike to work today!
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:45 AM on November 3, 2010

Update: The ANC6B commissioner, Ken Jarobe, who fueled most of the opposition to this station lost his seat in yesterday's election, and will be replaced by Brian Pate, who has been a strong supporter of Capital Bikeshare, and other bicycle-related infrastructure.
posted by schmod at 9:51 AM on November 3, 2010

I guess my discounted subscription price comes with dealing with growing pains, right? I've had to deal with a full rack, then a broken rack, already this week. Hope it gets better.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:43 AM on November 5, 2010

I heard that if the rack is full, keying in your code will give you another 15 minutes or something to find a new rack. But still, that would still be a real pain. I'm going to email them to ask them to rebalance the Lincoln Park station which looks like it will fill up again when people get back from work.
posted by exogenous at 8:21 AM on November 5, 2010

I heard that if the rack is full, keying in your code will give you another 15 minutes or something to find a new rack.

I've asked my BikeShare friends if this is true and will report back on what's the best thing you can do in that situation.

Yes, there are growing pains; they are adding staff and shifts to the re-balancing crew (manual labor at minimum wage outside in the rain, cold or heat, on flexible and variable hours where most of your time is spent fighting traffic + ambiguous job demand with no immediate oversight = low demand, high turnover jobs). But keep providing feedback, they are learning as they go. And that goes both ways; as a cyclist, please help people out a little--there are people reporting a bike as broken because they don't know how to lower the quick-release seatpost or that don't know that you can't roll a bicycle backwards when the kickstand is down. That leads to underutilized bikes and docks and a reduction in BikeShare capacity. I hope you can help these new cyclists as they develop a feel for it.

I expect that BikeShare will work reasonably well for the next four to five months and then there will be a lot of hiccups in the spring as usage increases exponentially from the day-use tourist trade and fair-weather commuters. From my viewpoint, I see BikeShare setting labor levels based on last month's demands, not next months projection. So hang in there, it'll be rocky until the baseline usage is established and the special event surges are anticipated. That's not going to happen in 2010 and probably not in 2011.

Unfortunately, for now think of BikeShare as public transit that is even more fragile and prone to disruption than Metro. It should work great from Tuesday AM to Thurday PM at this level of funding. You can't make a reservation like ZipCar and it's not a high capacity free-for-all like Metro, it's niche transportation. Aside from checking a google-map or an iPhone app, it's a complete guess if there will be a bike or a free dock when you need it, high capacity needs are not built into the system.

[An aside: the Glen Beck rally didn't affect BikeShare usage, but the Fear/Sanity rally totally fucked BikeShare both in term of bike balancing and in high cellphone usage blocking data transmission from the stations - bikes could not be docked into empty docks or rented from stations because of saturated cell towers.]

Speaking of Hill East, it looks like the new Census data will likely result in redistricting.

As a former resident of Hill East, I have to say, "Holy Crap!" But there's a cheap shot: from that article, "For his part, Barry says he’s going to let only cold hard census data guide his thinking (“I’m a scientist,” he says)." With Parenthetical Irony they suggest that he's no scientist, just a crack-smoking trickster. But, in fact, he is trained as a scientist: he was an Eagle Scout, earned a bachelor's degree, then a master's in organic chemistry, then abandoned two PhD chemistry programs because of the opposition to a black man teaching white students before devoting himself fully to politics and the civil rights movement.

To me, that's the typical high-brow low-blow divisive and short sighted coverage that's typical of the CityPaper. Fuck them and their predictable zipcode-based us-v-them leglifting.

Anyhow, via this thread, A Rake's Progress is the kind of smart and curious Marion Barry leg-lifting we should all get behind.

Long Live the King Mayor For Life.
posted by peeedro at 3:13 PM on November 11, 2010

I've asked my BikeShare friends if this is true and will report back on what's the best thing you can do in that situation.

The response: "You can get an extra 15 by going to the options menu on the kiosk. There is also an option that will show you the nearest stations and how many bikes/docks are available at those stations."

That's all I got.
posted by peeedro at 5:02 PM on November 11, 2010

To me, that's the typical high-brow low-blow divisive and short sighted coverage that's typical of the CityPaper.

I'm pretty sure no one at the City Paper has bothered to do the research (read: look up Barry's Wikipedia page) before making their sophmoric cheap shots. Nobody over there has lived in DC for more than a couple of years so what can you expect?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 9:22 AM on November 12, 2010