A Capital Bikeshare station should be coming to the National Mall in time for the National Cherry Blossom Festival, after a federal commission backed the idea Thursday.
The National Capital Planning Commission unanimously approved adding five stations of the bike-sharing system around the Mall. Last month, the locations won approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.
That nearly clears the path for the stations, which are seen as a first step to adding more to the Mall or other local park service sites. Now Capital Bikeshare only needs permits from the U.S. National Park Service, which has become supportive of the plan.
But only one of the five stations will be ready this spring. The bike-sharing system only has enough equipment on hand to have one station in place by the first weekend of the cherry blossom bonanza, said the District’s bicycle program specialist Chris Holben. “It will go in as soon as the permit is ready,” he said.
The first rack would sit near the Martin Luther King Jr. and Franklin Roosevelt monuments close to Ohio and West Basin Drives.
Holben hopes the remaining four stations will be in place for the Fourth of July. – Kytja Weir
