SmartBike DC was a

bicycle sharing system A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include bo ...

implemented in August 2008 with 120 bicycles and 10 automated rental locations in the

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Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

The network was the first of its kind in North America, but was replaced by the much larger, publicly funded

Capital Bikeshare Capital Bikeshare (also abbreviated CaBi) is a bicycle-sharing system that serves Washington, D.C., and certain counties of the Washington metropolitan area, larger metropolitan area. it had 700+ stations and more than 5,400 bicycles. The memb ...

system in the fall of 2010. SmartBike DC officially ceased operations in January 2011. The program was a public-private partnership between the

District of Columbia Department of Transportation The District Department of Transportation (DDOT, stylized as d.) is an agency of the government of the District of Columbia, in the United States, which manages and maintains publicly owned transportation infrastructure in the District of Colu ...

and the advertising firm

Clear Channel Outdoor Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. is a multinational corporation focused on outdoor advertising. The company is based in San Antonio, Texas. Together with JCDecaux, it is one of the largest outdoor advertising companies. History Founding ...

, which operated similar automated bike rental systems in

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and

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. The "computerized bicycle rental program" was included, at the insistence of then DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Dan Tangherlini, in the city's September 2005 bus shelter contract with Clear Channel Adshel. However, it took nearly three years for the program to launch, which was near the end of Mayor Anthony Williams term. Annual operating costs of the system were funded by a combination of advertising revenues and user subscription and/or rental fees, and DC received quarterly payments based on membership dues. It included 100 bikes at 10 stations. New DDOT Director Gabe Klein came into office four months after the program launched eager to expand it, but found the private partner had a "lackluster commitment." The agreement specifically prohibited DDOT from paying for anything related to SmartBike, so an expansion required DDOT to renegotiate the contract. In his first meeting with Clear Channel he found that Clear Channel believed they had gotten a bad deal on the original bus shelter contract, that following their purchase by

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they were no longer interested in “municipal street furniture” and that they had neither desire nor obligation to expand the program. In addition the technology was already dated. Each dock had to be hard-wired to the electrical grid, requiring coordination with the power company and digging at each location. Installation took nine months. Meanwhile, new solar powered systems that could be installed in a day - and moved as needed - were coming on the market. As a result, Klein chose to fold the program and instead partner with Arlington County, VA to build the regional bikesharing program

. A few months after Capital Bikeshare started in late 2010, Smart Bike DC ceased operations. Afterwards, the bikes were donated by ClearChannel to a Baltimore charity, the stations were removed in April of 2011 at ClearChannel's expense and the contract was modified to remove all references to SmartBike. Once closure was guaranteed, the program was criticized by ''The Washington City Paper'' for its low usage and limited number of bike stations. Despite this, the program is considered a success by others, as it provided proof of concept for its improved and vastly expanded replacement, Capital Bikeshare, as well as other bikeshare systems across the nation. It also allowed DDOT to develop in-house knowledge of bikesharing.

References

{{Bicycle sharing systems Community bicycle programs Cycling in Washington, D.C. Transportation in Washington, D.C. Bicycle sharing in the United States

See also

References