December 4, 2018
Bike and Scooter Share in the District
by Korrea Johnston
While traveling in and around the District, you may have spotted the colorful dockless bikes, scooters, and the new black Capital Bikeshare bikes. As these transportation options seem to be evolving quickly, we wanted to give you the rundown on all these fun ways for visitors to get around town.
Dockless Bikes:
- Jump Bike provides bright red dockless electric bikes that can be accessed via their app and can be parked at any bike rack
- Lime has mostly converted their dockless bicycle fleet to electric scooters
- Ofo and MoBike ceased operations in North America
- Spin has removed their bike fleet from DC and is planning to pivot to scooters in the near future
Docked Bikes:
Capital Bikeshare has debuted a number of exciting things in the past few months. A new pedal assisted e-bike called “Capital Bikeshare Plus” is being piloted in the District. Pedal assist bikes have integrated electric motors to give you an automatic boost when you pedal. There are currently 80 Capital Bikeshare Plus e-bikes in the system. The e-bikes are all black and can be found using the Capital Bikeshare app. There is no additional charge to ride the e-bikes. They cost the same as the red bikes and are included in the annual membership.
Capital Bikeshare is continuing to expand with 9 new stations installed this year, and 31 additional stations being planned for all 8 wards. Keep an eye out for new stations in your neighborhoods!
Remember, when using Capital Bikeshare, don’t forget to dock your bike at the end of your trip!
Dockless Electric Scooters:
Lime, Skip, Bird and Lyft provide electric scooters that can be parked anywhere as long as they aren’t blocking pedestrian walkways. Download each company’s app to view pricing options and to locate nearby scooters.
Happy riding!
