DC Bike Share Growing Fast, But Regional Gaps Remain

The Washington, D.C.-area Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) system is seeing record-breaking ridership, with the number of rides jumping almost 50 percent between October 2023 and October 2024.

According to a piece in Greater Greater Washington by David Meyer, “The growth is driven in part by local governments’ investment in new e-bikes, which began to make up a majority of CaBi rides in August. Members, who are more likely to be local, account for 66.6% of all rides—a sign of the system’s utility as a go-to commuting and transportation source for locals, not tourists.”

However, Meyer points out that the system still has some “regional deficiencies,” making some parts of the network more aesthetic than useful. “In DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser has pledged to put a bikeshare station within a quarter-mile of every resident’s home, a promise not matched by local lawmakers in many other parts of the region. As a result, walkable communities outside the District often lack the requisite CaBi station density required to make bikeshare a viable transportation option.”

Meyer suggests that CaBi should take a hard look at its governance model and perhaps take a more regional approach to strengthening the entire system and ensuring there are enough stations and bikes to serve outlying areas. Bringing CaBi under the umbrella of the regional transit agency could have advantages: “Treating CaBi as public transit could transform it from an amenity to a necessity in parts of the region where bikeshare doesn’t perform well at the moment.” However, it could also make the system more vulnerable to transit funding cuts.