Where should 25 new Capital Bikeshare stations go?

Right on the heels of Capital Bikeshare’s hugely successful Living Social promotion, DDOT is expanding the numbers of stations, with new stations at the Wilson Building and 5 downtown Metro stations, and plans for 25 more stations throughout DC.

Today, a new Capital Bikeshare station is opening up at the Wilson Building. It’s on the back side, near 14th and D Streets, NW, as opposed to the front on Pennsylvania Avenue.

A Pennsylvania Avenue location would provide more visibility, but would have required almost impossible-to-obtain Park Service and other federal approvals. There are also advantages to the rear: the security screening to get into the building from D Street typically has much shorter lines than the front door. It will also be very useful for anyone working or going to a conference in the Reagan Building.

DDOT is also replacing 5 of the defunct SmartBike stations with Capital Bikeshare: at Farragut Square, Metro Center, Foggy Bottom, Judiciary Square, and the Portrait Gallery. These are among the most desirable spots, which is why they were selected for the 10 SmartBike stations.

Four stations just opened in Rosslyn, beginning CaBi’s march toward serving the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor along with its initial Arlington deployment in Crystal City.

Finally, DDOT just posted a map with potential locations for new stations.

Here’s a list of station locations proposed on the map. It doesn’t show the precise locations such as which side of the street each would be on, so any description here is approximate. I’ve omitted the quadrant when it’s obvious, which is most of the time.

West of the White House

• 4 at GW: Washington Circle, 23rd and H, 23rd between G and H, and 24th and I
• 19th between I and K, near Farragut West
• 20th and G
• 18th and G
• E between 17th and 18th

East of the White House

• Thomas Circle
• 11th and K
• 10th and H
• G between 9th and 10th
• 13th and E
• 11th and C

Around the Mall and L’Enfant

• 3rd and Constitution (NW)
• 1st and Constitution (NW)
• 4th and Independence (SW)
• 4th and C (SW)
• 4th and E (SW)

Upper Connecticut

• Connecticut at the Zoo entrance
• Connecticut and Nebraska

Georgetown

• Reservoir and Wisconsin
• P Street at Rose Park

Dupont

• At the Dupont Circle south Metro entrance
• 20th and Connecticut north of Dupont
• 17th Street and Rhode Island
• 17th and Massachusetts
• 17th and Church (YES!)

Adams Morgan & southern Columbia Heights

• Columbia and Belmont in Adams Morgan
• Florida and Seaton or California
• 16th and Euclid
• 14th and Clifton

East of Columbia Heights

• Georgia and Hobart
• 1st between Michigan and Irving, at the Hospital Center

Shaw to Bloomingdale

• 7th and R, at Shaw Metro
• 7th and P
• 1st and Rhode Island (NW)

Upper Georgia & 14th

• Georgia and Columbia
• Georgia and Upshur
• 14th and Arkansas
• 14th and Colorado

NoMA & H Street (all NE)

• 2nd and N, at New York Avenue Metro
• 8th and Florida, at Gallaudet
• 6th and H
• 11th and H

Capitol Hill

• 7th and D, NE
• 6th and C, NE, southeast corner of Stanton Park
• 3rd and Independence, SE
• 15th and Independence, SE
• D and New Jersey, SE
• 3rd and G, SE

Capital Riverfront

• Half and M, by the Ballpark
• 3rd and Tingey, by the Navy Yard

Anacostia

• Martin Luther King and W
• W between 14th and 15th, SE

Congress Heights

• 13th and Alabama, at Congress Heights Metro
• 5th and Alabama

Benning

• East Capitol & Benning, by Benning Road Metro

What do you think of these locations? DDOT is interested in resident feedback before they make decisions. Email them to ddot.bikeshare@dc.gov.

One of the biggest questions is whether to spread stations out more evenly around DC, giving each ward a number of new stations, or to concentrate them in denser areas where there are more people within a short walk. This plan seems to balance those well, giving most of the stations to the core but still adding some key nodes in other neighborhoods in each ward.