Bikestation comes to Washington, D.C. Photo by Rhys Thom.

The large bicycle helmet-shaped structure — a project that’s been in the works for six years — outside of Union Station finally opened to the public during a ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning attended by a veritable “who’s who “of Washington’s bicycling community. Members of DDOT, Mayor Adrian Fenty, Councilman Tommy Wells, and representatives of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) attended and showed their support.

“It’s a new vision for how we’re thinking through how a great, asset-rich urban environment should be,” Wells said.

Bikestation, a nonprofit organization based in Long Beach, Calif., unveiled its newest facility with the goal of reducing traffic congestion, reducing vehicular emissions, improving access to mass transit, and increasing transport options in the nation’s capital. Similar parking stations have already been built in Long Beach, Palo Alto, Berkeley, Seattle and Santa Barbara.

Evan Bender, a local bike commuter, checks out the interior of the new facility. Photo by Rhys Thom.

The ultra-modern, glass and steel building, sitting under the shadow of Union Station’s iconic columns, cost $3 million to construct (plus $1 million of associated site improvements) and will house approximately 130 bicycles. It was funded mostly by the Federal Highway Administration, with the goal of alleviating traffic and helping the environment. And it very well may work. Andrea White-Kjoss, the President and CEO of Bikestation, estimates that 30% of expected users will be former drivers, and 60% will bike more frequently than they did before the station’s existence.

The station provides lockers, a changing area, bike rentals, repair and maintenance, and of course, indoor parking. Members, who pay an annual fee, will have 24/7 access to the facility, while rentals and maintenance occur from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

During the fall and winter months, there will be three people staffing the facility: two mechanics to run the full-service repair shop, and one rental assistant to promote Bike and Roll tours of the city. Users will be able to fix a flat, repair a broken chain, or buy some gear, like reflective leg bands.

Two mechanics will be on staff 7am-7pm. Photo by Rhys Thom.

“We’re there to get them back on the road as quickly as possible,” said Jon Saunders, one of the two Bike and Roll mechanics who will be staffing Bikestation in the coming months.

He said he’s never seen anything like Bikestation before.

“It’s a new concept for me,” he said. “It’s going to be very popular. I think it’ll fill up really quickly. It could have been twice the size.”

At the beginning of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, it was announced that 45 people had already signed up for a membership. Midway through, the tally rose to 60. The maximum capacity is 400 members, and it looks to be filling up quickly. White-Kjoss said it was the “fastest uptake of Bikestation in 15 years.”

“I think it will peak people’s interest and advance the concept,” Saunders added, “but in the future, it’s going to have to be a much bigger scale. It would be nice to have one outside of every Metro station.” Many other stations throughout the central business district would certainly benefit from a nearby bicycle storage facility (and many already have a nearby bike rental location.)

Mayor Fenty leads the ribbon-cutting to unveil Bikestation Washington, D.C.. Photo by Rhys Thom.

And therein lies one of the biggest limitations of the new facility — it’s too small. Amsterdam, in contrast, has a parking ramp that holds up to 7,000 bikes.

But of course, it’s unfair — and unwise — to compare D.C. to Amsterdam. The two cities have not evolved in the same way, socially (what bicycling means to each culture), geographically (density) and politically (policy). Still, Bikestation Washington D.C. is still a hugely symbolic statement, as Noah Kazis wrote in a previous post.

As Mayor Fenty said, “It’s not just a glass structure. It’s setting a national trend and national standard for intermodal transportation, for getting people out of their cars, for getting fit, and for getting people together.”

He emphasized the increased connectivity between Metrobus, the subway, MARC, VRE and Amtrak. He also kept talking about how it’s the first Bikestation on the East Coast (the 7th — and largest — in the country), and how “cool” it looks (made of mostly glass, in the shape of a bicycle helmet.) Finally, for a $96 annual membership, Fenty said it’s an “inexpensive way to stay so fit and so connected.”

The station makes the Union Station area (and, by extension, the nearby NoMa area,) one of the most connected car-free points in the country. The bicycling station provides an outstanding answer to the question of last-mile connectivity. And this is a model that can continue to be replicated.

“People will look at this and will follow the example,” White-Kjoss said, “to get out of their cars, on bikes and on transit.”

The idea is to get people out of cars, onto their bikes. Photo by Rhys Thom.

The station sets Washington up to become a type of Portland of the East. It not only demonstrates the District’s commitment to cycling, it also helps perpetuate it. According to Gabe Klein, director of DDOT, Washington has the largest percentage of cyclists on the East Coast. Bikestation’s newest facility has the potential to magnify that trend.

“It’s a monument to to bicycling,” said Martin Moulton, vice-president of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) Board of Directors. “It says that bicycling is an important and integral part of transportation infrastructure for the future, and that there will be more important decisions from the city and Capitol Hill about the choices we make for transportation plans across the country.”

Moulton pointed to the unsuccessful Dupont Down Under project to utilize empty space under Dupont Circle, saying that it holds potential for housing a new bicycle parking station, complete with changing rooms, showers and lockers. Not a bad idea.

The main point is that this is only the beginning of what must be a larger movement to promote cycling and sustainable transport in the nation’s capital.

“DDOT and the city are not going to rest on the laurels of this one facility,” White-Kjoss said. “We’ll be seeing a lot more of this.”

Erica Schlaikjer contributed to this post.

To learn more about Wasington D.C.’s commitment to bicycling, see these links:

• Bike Ambassador program
• Metropolitan Branch trail
• SmartBike DC

Don’t forget to check out the following EMBARQ-produced video about bikesharing in the city:

SmartBike DC from EMBARQ Network on Vimeo.

The D.C. Circulator feels the pain of service cuts. Photo by krossbow.

I have often extolled the virtues of the D.C. Circulator system. The unique branding and routing combination has served to make the system valuable to the infrequent rider. The routes served fill major gaps in the metro service, but provide metro-level service frequencies. Unlike regular local service, where one has to remember route names, timetables and maps, Circulator buses offer a simple route on a simple schedule with the name of the route right on the top of the bus.

So I was disheartened to hear about DDOT’s decision to cut service on some of the Circulator routes. I was particularly upset at the rerouting of the Georgetown route, and not only because it is the line I use most frequently. The current line, traveling along Massachusetts avenue, K Street, Pennsylvania, M Street., and Wisconsin is most functional specifically because it is so elementary. If you were to get off a westbound Circulator downtown, you could simply cross the street to take an eastbound Circulator. The new layout of the route, with a loop being made from Washington Circle, K Street, Wisconsin, M Street, and Pennsylvania, back to the circle, is not nearly as functional. Not only does the elimination of stops along Wisconsin north of M street cut off a fairly inaccessible neighborhood, but the rerouting along K Street (which, while dynamic, is not nearly as congested or as visited as it’s northern cousin, M) cuts off an important connection to the heart of Georgetown for eastbound travelers.

Every budget is a hairy experience, and I understand that cuts have to be made, but I wish that Metro would actively incubate what has the potential to be a very strong circulator system.

Metrobus cruising through Washington, D.C. Photo by JLaw45.

Buses are a bit like the Rodney Dangerfield of public transportation: they don’t get no respect.  In general, the smart growth community holds up rail transit as the paragon of public transportation, and bicycling as its noble sidekick in the fight against sprawl and climate change.  Buses are a bit of an ugly stepsister.  Yes, they take cars off the road and get people where they need to go, but they aren’t usually electric and they usually can’t avoid traffic.  They’re cheap, and usually it shows.  In other words, they aren’t sexy.

Then again, don’t forget about the question posed by Erica Schlaikjer on TheCityFix Global: “Who Said Buses Can’t Be Cool?” You can’t deny the user appeal of sleek and hip bus systems like the Metro Orange Line in Los Angeles. And check out the high quality bus rapid transit (BRT) systems in cities like Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Bogota, where sophisticated transit on wheels — not rail — show how “an updated version of America’s most boring way to ride may very well be the fastest, cheapest way to solve some of our nation’s most pressing problems,” as stated in GOOD magazine and echoed by a recent front page article in the New York Times, which said BRT “may hold a key to combating climate change.”

However, in this town, I think that it’s reasonable to say that Metrorail is a sexy system.  Traveling at high speeds through subterranean corridors is a little glamorous. But I think part of metro’s sexiness comes from its simplicity.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the system is foolproof, but when John and Jane Smith from Peoria come in to visit, they can get from their hotel in Greenbelt to the Smithsonian without too much trouble.

In my opinion, one of the things that makes Metrorail a “sexy” system is the ability to distort geographic realities.  A rider can enter the system at one station, and, after a period of time in a Ted Stevens internet, arrive at another one. In many cases this whole interaction happens below ground, and in almost all cases it occurs without following any type of established traffic or roadway procedure.  Contrast that with the all too terrestrial bus, where turns and stoplights are felt.

As much as the ride itself distorts geographic reality, the system map (and the maps of many other systems) bends space to provide a simple picture.  The Metro map uses gentle angles and big, bold lines, which don’t necessarily represent the path (or scale) of Metro lines.   The distance between Clarendon and Court House on the Orange line, for example, are obviously not the same distance apart as Vienna and Dun Loring, yet they take the same amount of space on the map.

I’ve often been an apologist for buses, but I feel that their geographic constraints are part of what makes buses so much less desirable in many communities as rail.  I think that the Circulator is a step in the right direction, not only because its map uses right angles (if only because that’s also what the bus actually does) but because the buses themselves have a stylized version of the routes. I wonder if Metrobuses would see an increase in casual ridership if some of the maps were drawn in a more stylized way that didn’t necessarily adhere to a geographic reality. (D.C. should take a hint from Los Angeles, which rebranded its entire Metro system to appeal to the general public. The result? Increased ridership, public recognition and user satisfaction.)  It seems like a relatively insignificant change, but it’s one that will help bring our buses in D.C. a little more respect.

I make no apologies for being from the greatest metropolitan area in the country. Living in Pittsburgh absolutely infuses every part of my thought process, and I am incredibly proud of all the success my city has had this year (this and this are obviously the big ones, not to mention this or this). But I am also a part-time member of what is likely the most famous domestic diaspora community in the country. If the proliferation of Steeler’s bars is any indication, my region has sent its sons and daughters all across the country and across the world in numbers very few other places can rival. My own parents left the region briefly in the late ’80s, which explains why I was born in Columbus, Ohio.

Population has been the story of the Pittsburgh region for decades. At first, it was the standard “urban doughnut” of people moving from the city and towns on the rivers to suburban enclaves. But after the shutdown of many steel mills and related businesses, the whole region began losing population (what I refer to as the “urban deflated soufflé.”) The Pittsburgh MSA (metropolitan statistical area) is one of just five of the 50 largest MSAs to lose population between 2000 and 2008 (the others being our fellow Rust Belters Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo, as well as post-hurricane New Orleans).

So it was a bit of a culture shock to move into a city where not only the metropolitan region is growing, but the central city itself is gaining population (albeit after several decades of population loss.) The trend of population in the DC region means you are asking many different questions about sustainable development. In Pittsburgh, the question is “How do we attract/retain talent and keep them from going to Charlotte or San Jose or a host of other places?” In Washington, the question seems to be “What are we going to do with all of these people?”

Talent attraction doesn’t appear to be an issue in DC, or if it is, the region is asking the question on a global, not domestic scale. Pittsburgh and DC ask different questions about land use and transportation, as well. In Pittsburgh, the challenge is to improve transit service to a growing land footprint with a smaller population. While the topography severely limits growth (we have the steepest street in the country at 37 degrees, not to mention the largest number of bridges in the world based on one count), we are beginning to see the urbanized area cast a wider shadow.

In Washington, on the other hand, the challenge is to serve a population and a land area that are both growing. It’s an important distinction, particularly when one begins talking about service improvements. While the “Silver Line” is a few years away in DC, Pittsburgh is still trying to put together an underground rapid transit line that has been discussed for nearly a century, a difficult expense to justify politically as our population shrinks. That being said, I do think there is something for growing cities such as Washington to learn from our efficient use of busways and contra-flow bus lanes that do a reasonable job of transporting people in the densely developed central business district and university district. While not exactly a BRT system, Pittsburgh’s system does manage to do a pretty efficient job of cycling people into and out of the Golden Triangle, and is something worth at least considering in Washington.

Ultimately, Pittsburgh and Washington have a fairly close bond, perhaps second only to our love/hate relationship to the Metropolis of the Western Reserve. DC boasts one of the largest ‘Burgh Diaspora communities, and is our closest connection on the Eastern Seaboard, and by extension, the global talent pool. DC is one of just a few cities still available by direct train from Pittsburgh (the Capitol Limited). The Great Allegheny Passage is complete up to McKeesport, PA (about seven miles away from the city) and a person will be able to ride his or her bike from the convergence of the three rivers in Downtown Pittsburgh into Georgetown soon. All told, I really think that there is a healthy dialogue between the Steel City and the Capital. The ‘Burgh certainly gets a lot out of our relationship, and I think that DC can certainly learn a lot from Pittsburgh as well.