Dear PoP – Capital Bike Share Bikes Scarce

“Dear PoP,

I’m a big fan of the Capital Bike Share system, was one of the charter members ($50 a year instead of $75), and simply love the concept. However, I feel like Columbia Heights and Petworth tend to get the sticky end of the stick when it comes down to actually being able to ride a bike. Consider this morning, here we are again with close to zero bikes available.

I was walking to the station at 14th and Harvard and thought it might be a good idea to see if any bikes were available. Not a single bike at Petworth OR any of the CH stations. Yet again.

Rush hours happen, I get it, but this is at midday on a Monday. The other end of this problem is finding somewhere to dock a bike on the other end. On a Saturday I often have to get a 15 minute extension to try and find an open dock on Corcoran St by Safeway (17th Street restaurants) and nearby stations on 14th St. I mentioned these problems to a friend in Barcelona (they have a similar system called ‘Bicing’) and he said they’re really on the ball over there and he’s never seen this happen.

The CaBi system just offered half price memberships on Living Social and I read that somewhere in the region of 4,000+ memberships had been purchased. I’m all for funding expansion of the system but only if the members can actually use it.

Is this just my bad luck or are there other black hole stations in the system that need addressing? I’d like to suggest something to CaBi and am curious about other’s experience in the area.”

Are you guys noticing it is getting harder to find a bike at the bike share station? I’m usually able to get one at the intersection of Georgia and New Hampshire Ave, NW by Sweet Mango though I was thwarted last Sunday afternoon on H St, NE: