Capital Bikeshare added another station to the National Mall on Wednesday, the fourth of five stations slated to grace the nation’s front yard.
The station with 23 docks is at the Jefferson Memorial.
In March, the bike sharing system opened two stations just before the National Cherry Blossom Festival began, one near the Washington Monument at Jefferson Drive between 14th and 15th streets in Southwest and the other near the Martin Luther King Memorial at Ohio and West Basin drives.
A third was added in April outside the Smithsonian Metro stop along the Mall at 12th Street and Jefferson Drive Southwest.
The stations are a big coup for the bike-sharing network that extends across the District and Arlington. They provide access to some of the most tourist-rich spots of the region. Tourists are big moneymakers for the service as they tend to buy the higher priced one-day memberships and take longer trips than the 30-minute free rides. Previously the National Park Service limited transportation options around the Mall due to a contract with a tour bus company.
It’s the latest advance for the system that has since been copied in Boston and Chicago. On Tuesday, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley announced that Montgomery County, College Park and the University of Maryland had won state money to add bike share stations. The communities will be required to match 20 percent of the state money.
Separately, Prince George’s County and Greenbelt won grants to study the feasibility of adding bikeshare stations to their communities. In total, $2.5 million in bikeshare funds was awarded. The governor’s office said the programs could begin as soon as July 1.
