Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Promised Bikeshare expansion coming to H Street & North side of Capitol Hill this fall

Finally some good news about in the DC Transporation world.  Bikeshare announced that they will go ahead with the expansion of neighborhood stations and install others long discussed this fall. 

New stations are slated for:

6th & H (always planned, but never installed)
11th & H (long in the works)
6th & Florida (Galludet)
7th & Maryland (Stanton Park/ NE Branch Library)

Each of these locations were among the proposed locations that received the most votes during the public comment period earlier this year.

The following existing bikeshare stations (which are often full or empty) are slated to expand:
13th & D
13th & H
13th & East Capitol (Lincoln Park)
This is good news for bikeshare users and for the neighborhood.  The existing stations, especially the 13th Street locations between Lincoln Park and H Street have a tendency to be full or empty and the expansion and additional locations will help ease that burden. 
The increased number of bikes in the area does beg the question of whether additional bike lanes should be installed nearby.  C Street and D Street have bikelanes, but there don't appear to be any closer to H Street than that.  H Street is not as likely option having just been redone and with streetcars coming eventually.  A December Greater Greater Washington post suggested G Street and I Street as possibilities for bike boulevards.  Maryland Avenue is currently being studied for pedestrian safety improvements and might be a good option for bike friendly improvements. 

3 comments:

  1. This would be good news if the last news about them didnt say they were supposed to open this summer. What is the hold up? How hard can this be?

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  2. @ Dave B,

    This is good news: we'll have much improved bikeshare service here in a few months.

    It isn't streetcars, which I think we'll need to address soon.

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  3. If there's any hold-up, it's likely the expansion of stations DC-wide. I'm presuming that they contract out construction. In any case, it's great to see more stations and more sustainable transport in DC. This is the right direction.

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