Capital Bikeshare bikes and a Spin scooter framed under the fall foliage on the National Mall in October 2023 by angela n. licensed under Creative Commons.

Fall is in full swing in the Washington metro area as leaves and temperatures have both fallen across the region. Even amidst a colder time of year, Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) has been boasting record-breaking ridership numbers, as seen in their recent social media celebration:

October was the busiest month in the 13-year history of the CaBi system, with 491,084 total rides throughout the region. The previous monthly ridership record was set in August 2023, which touted 470,132 trips during the city’s summer swelter.

This new monthly Bikeshare Beat reflects on the previous month’s major milestones for the CaBi system, looks at ridership trends, and awards “Pedal Medals” as superlatives for interesting observations. We hope you enjoy this inaugural installment!

Use of the Capital Bikeshare system has skyrocketed over the past three years. As you can see in the graph below, the record-breaking uptick in ridership in October is a serious departure from the downward trend CaBi typically sees as it nears the winter months.

Data from Capital Bikeshare. Image by the author.

Through October, CaBi has already soared well beyond its previous 2022 annual ridership record of 3.4 million – surpassing that number of rides on October 9, 2023, when one rider took a 12-minute joyride on an ebike from Adams Morgan to near Penn Quarter. Was this you? Kudos to our hero on the handlebars!

Data from Capital Bikeshare. Image by the author.

The busiest month on record also brought about some peculiar statistics that deserve recognition. Please enjoy the following Pedal Medals: (*drum roll please*)

Data from Capital Bikeshare. Image by the author.

What did we miss? Reach out to editor@ggwash.org and let us know what you’d like to see in our monthly breakdowns, ideas for the future of the CaBi, missed pun opportunities, or lighthearted Pedal Medals to award.

Since its inception in September 2010, Capital Bikeshare has moved millions of riders around the Greater Washington metro area and is an affordable and efficient mode of transportation for local residents and tourists alike. CaBi publishes its system data online each month, providing insights into ridership for the month prior and highlighting the rapid growth in user engagement around the city. All dissemination of this information by Greater Greater Washington is in good-faith compliance with the Capital Bikeshare Data License Agreement.