An interesting post from David Alpert at Greater Greater Washington:

Transit has more capacity at peak times when there are more vehicles. It costs money to run a vehicle, so you run it when there’s demand. Therefore, bus lines in particular are far more useful at times when there are a lot of buses. At some times of day, they don’t run at all. Bike sharing is the opposite. It has a fixed capacity that fills up quickly, but is always available. Bike sharing is most useful off-peak, when the stations aren’t filling up or emptying out so fast. It’s always available at night. For this reason, we can think of it actually as a complement to short-distance buses. Someone who lives on a bus line might find that the bus is a better choice during rush, but bikeshare is better middays.

The first half of that last sentence has been my recent experience, although only in the morning. Still, I’m thinking about taking my own bicycle to work. Just found out about the big bike racks in garage of my office building.

It’s a bit sad that I’m posting this on the eve of “Bike to Work Day,” but I think I’m through with taking Capital Bikeshare to work in the morning.

For the second time this week, I had trouble finding a place to dock my bike downtown (both times shortly after 9am). The four stations near my office were all filled up, so I found myself wandering around with phone in hand, looking for a slot. I noticed a few other people on CaBi bikes doing the same thing.

One problem is that the SpotCycle app, which tells you where stations are and how many slots they have available, doesn’t seem to be terribly real time. This morning, my app showed me that stations had docks open when they didn’t. That’s frustrating.

Also, hunting for an open Bikeshare dock is almost worse than looking for a parking space in a car. You’re pedaling around, getting stressed, sweating. Bluh. For now, I’m switching back to taking the bus going to work and Bikeshare coming home.

WAMU:

Ron Linton, the chairman of the D.C. Taxicab Commission, said today on WAMU 88.5 FM’s The Politics Hour that riders of the city’s taxicabs will be able to pay their fares with credit cards by September. ”On June 1 the installation of these, what we call the modern taxi meter system, will begin in our 7,300 taxicabs, to be completed by August 31. So on the first of September no one should have any problem using a credit system to take a taxicab ride,” said Linton.

Washington Post:

Even if the new color is finalized this summer, Waters cautions it will be several years before all taxis became red. Under the legislation, taxi owners would switch to the new color when they replace their current vehicles. Waters estimates as many as a 1,000 new cabs a year would include the new red color scheme.

Grist:

As of April 2013, there were 26 active modern public programs in the United States, a number poised to double within the next year or two. The largest U.S. program in early 2013 was Capital Bikeshare, with more than 1,800 bicycles spread across 200 stations in Washington, D.C., and neighboring communities.

This new station just improved my life. Glad it’s there.

Georgetown, DC Patch:

A streetcar extending to [Georgetown University] would go a long way toward reducing congestion, [Joe Sternlieb, CEO of the Georgetown BID] believes. He is also encouraging DDOT to give the streetcars their own designated right-of-way so that they don’t suffer the same fate as the Union Station to Georgetown Circulator. “It’s not useful public transit when it takes an hour to get 3.8 miles,” he said.

This morning, I spent a grueling 45 minutes on a Circulator bus, creeping along with no apparent air conditioning. A designated right-of-way sounds pretty good.