Arlington County is preparing to roll out a bike-sharing program in the fall that local officials hope will help fuel demand for bike transit and help relieve congested roadways and trains.
The program, called Nextbike, will feature between 100 and 200 bikes that will be tied up with cable locks at an estimated 40 orange Zipcar poles along the Rosslyn–Ballston corridor, as well as in front of Metro stations, county bike-sharing consultant Paul DeMaio said.
Subscribers will pay an estimated $40 annual registration fee and can unlock the bikes by calling an automated number and typing in the five-digit code on the rear fender of the bike they want to use.
The caller will receive the combination code for the lock and then can remove the bike. Later, the cyclist can return the bike to any of the poles in the county.
The first half-hour of use will be free, but there will be a fee for each additional half-hour, though officials have not determined the amount.
“There will be a half-hour charge comparable to other modes of transit,” DeMaio said. “Otherwise, people could use it all day, and we want to discourage that because there are bike rental shops that rent all day. We’re not trying to compete with that — we’re bike transit.”
But Arlington bike commuters will not be able to ride across the bridge into the District because insurance provisions prevent companies from allowing their bicycles to be ridden in other jurisdictions.
Arlington’s bike-sharing program will be similar to the SmartBike D.C. program that is scheduled to start soon in the District of Columbia.
The District’s program, which is tentatively scheduled to begin in June, will place 120 bikes at 10 computerized kiosks that will unlock bikes when users swipe access cards. There will be no hourly charge for SmartBikes, but there will be a three-hour rental limit.
Area officials are discussing setting up a bike transfer station on District-owned land in Arlington, where riders could exchange a Nextbike for a SmartBike or vice versa, DeMaio said.
Accounting for technology costs, the SmartBike program will cost D.C. $4,500 per bike, DeMaio said.
The Nextbike program, which Arlington is paying for with a $200,000 state grant, will cost the county about $750 per bike, he said.
But unlike D.C.’s bikes, Arlington’s will be covered with advertising.
D.C.’s SmartBike program is run by ClearChannel Outdoor Holdings, which runs the city’s bus shelter advertising.
Arlington could not participate in that program because the county does not allow bus shelter or street advertising, DeMaio said.
