Today, the city of Washington, DC, opened the east coast's largest bike center. It's the East Coast's first such facility; it is the nation's most state-of-the-art; it features a public-private operating partnership; and it demonstrates that our nation's own capital city offers a model example of the kind of sustainable mobility President Obama's Livable Communities initiative seeks.
Bikestation Washington, DC, sits right next to Union Station, a key access point for Amtrak and MARC commuter rail.
In addition, tens of thousands of DC commuters embark and disembark from an adjacent Metro subway stop. And thousands more live within walking distance of the Bikestation. All of the hundreds of thousands of commuters passing through this hub daily can either ride their bikes to the facility and hop on a train; or they can walk or take transit to the facility then hop on a stored bike to complete their trips.
Building the bike center was a project of the DC Department of Transportation's Bicycle Program, headed by Jim Sebastian. The Bicycle Program's Chris Holben shepherded the multi-year project. Operations at the center will be managed by Bikestation, a private company operating 6 other centers. The Federal Highway Administration provided 80% of the new center's $4 million cost, and there are particulars on the Bikestation at its new website.
But, what is really important to America is not what it provides, but what it makes possible.
This is a smart investment in truly multi-modal commuting. It is attractive; it is green; it provides what bicycling commuters need. And it is a model of the sustainable, livable mobility this nation needs now.
Congratulations Jim and Chris--and also to DC Transportation head Gabe Klein, Bikestation's Andréa White-Kjoss, mayor Adrian Fenty, and DC Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells (an avid bicyclist and new member of the Bikestation) for helping the DC Bicycle Program see this through to the last mile.
This is a program that should be copied across the country by many other transit systems. The transit systems in southern California, including Orange County's OCTA don't operate bike stations. They should. It would make traveling by bike to finish the trip much easier. Hear the buses have bike racks outside on the front of the bus but these are sometimes hard for people to use. And if you don't want to take your bike with you, you have to chain iht to the bus shelter or the bus stop sign post and hope no one can cut the chain and take the bike while you are gone. Bike stations are deffinately a better way to go. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.
Posted by: Michael E. Bailey | October 06, 2009 at 12:44 AM
This is awesome. Wishing Atlanta had something similar.
Posted by: Cain Williamson | October 06, 2009 at 09:06 AM
Very Exciting! I was just in Denver and local bicycle advocates I met with shared with me that they'd love to see a Bikestation there too. Connecting bicycling with transit plays a key role in making our cities more livable. Thanks for all of your support.
Posted by: Ron Milam | October 06, 2009 at 02:03 PM
What a great idea! I wonder if something like this could work in downtown L.A.
Posted by: OC Dermatologist | October 10, 2009 at 02:50 PM
Are there plans to roll this out to other states? I think it's a brilliant idea, not new because there are lots of countries in Europe with those facilities, but it's a fantastic start....
Posted by: Mark Felix @ Airportessentials | October 12, 2009 at 11:55 AM
The bike station appears to be very nice facility. It should be for $4 million!
Wake up America! It is time to stop spending and start saving. The Chinese basically own this bike station because we had to borrow the money from them.
Mark my word -- inflation is coming if this spending continues.
Posted by: SensibleBiker | October 15, 2009 at 10:04 PM
The one thing that strikes me about this is that Union Station is about the stupidest location for a bike station ever devised. The fact that people are using it despite the fact that it's bang in the center of a vast web of Metro and rail options suggests that there's a lot of money to be made by the folks who built it. Why? Because if you can make one of these work right in the center of DC where cycling is pretty much unnecessary, you can make it work even better anywhere that a Metro, rail or even a bus line ends.
Posted by: IanBrettCooper | September 23, 2010 at 10:01 AM
The Bikestation is a great investment in promoting more people to bike to work. Who knows? It may possibly decrease the traffic congestion in D.C.
Posted by: Qalab A. | August 10, 2012 at 03:23 PM