The city is set to officially roll out its SmartBike D.C. bicycle-sharing program today after months of delays.
The red and silver bikes have been lined up at racks for the past week in the program’s “testing mode,” according to Jim Sebastian, the manager for bicycle, pedestrian and transportation demand-management programs for the District Department of Transportation.
“We didn’t anticipate that it would take as long as it did and we didn’t have a good handle on all the steps required,” Sebastian said about the two-month delay on the program’s debut. He said getting the racks’ design approved, inspected and electrically wired all took longer than expected.
Starting today, 120 bikes will be available to registered subscribers at 10 docking stations throughout the city. About 150 people have subscribed, he said.
Users pay an annual $40 fee for a magnetic card that unlocks the bikes, which they may borrow from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. for up to three hours at a time and may return to any kiosk.
The program does not provide bike locks and charges participants a $550 replacement fee for bicycles not returned within 24 hours, even if they are stolen.
SmartBike D.C. does not offer helmets, though it encourages riders to bring their own.
Eve DeCoursey, membership and development manager for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, said people might be reluctant to borrow shared helmets if SmartBike D.C. provided them, but she encouraged people to buy their own.
“They’re cheap, they’re light, and in that dreadful incident of a crash, they really perform,” she said.
SmartBike D.C. is a partnership between DDOT and the advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor, which will maintain the system. The self-service rental program is part of the city’s 20-year bus shelter contract with Clear Channel, which will earn the company an estimated $150 million in advertising revenue.
Clear Channel runs bike-sharing programs in 13 European cities, and also has signed contracts with San Francisco and Chicago.
SmartBike D.C. is just one of the city’s many bike initiatives, including a planned Union Station Bicycle Transit Center, which will provide parking, rental and a repair shop when it opens in spring 2009.
