Capital Bikeshare Celebrates 2 Millionth Ride During Bike to Work Week

(Washington, DC) Capital Bikeshare celebrated its two millionth ride Thursday, May 17, just 8 months after surpassing the one million trip mark on the day of its first anniversary. The wildly popular transit system has helped to advance bicycling as an inexpensive, convenient and earth-friendly mode of transportation since its launch in September 2010 and hit this latest milestone during National Bike to Work Week and on the eve of Bike to Work Day.  

“We welcome the spread of bikesharing to other cities, including New York City and Chicago, but they have some catching up to do,” said Terry Bellamy, the Director of the District Department of Transportation. “Capital Bikeshare continues to set the pace and we’re moving faster now. We hope to have 50 more stations in DC by the end of the year and it’s quite possible we will surpass 3 million rides by then 
as well.”

“Capital Bikeshare has been a huge success in Arlington County and we are excited to continue to expand the program and bring the red bikes to more people,” said Chris Hamilton, Arlington County Commuter Services Bureau Chief. “Arlington will have 50 Capital Bikeshare stations by the end of the year, and we are planning to bring it to even more parts of the County in 2013.”

At 12:04 Thursday afternoon, a monthly member took a bike from a station located at Potomac & Pennsylvania Avenue, SE. He returned the bike to the 7th and F Street, NW station at 12:19 pm, registering the system’s two millionth trip. He was rewarded for taking the lucky trip with a free annual membership, a Timbuk2 messenger bag, a Capital Bikeshare hat, and a $100 gift card to Revolution Cycles.  

Capital Bikeshare has become an extremely popular and important part of the District and Arlington County’s transportation system, registering nearly 26,000 annual members since its inception 20 months ago. The street presence of the system’s 166 stations and 1400 bikes has given added visibility to bicycling as a viable form of transportation for both commuting and leisure. Due to the rapid growth of membership, Capital Bikeshare has added more than 50 additional stations and 200 bikes since its launch, and continues to expand.

Some 12,700 local residents biked to work on Friday, a record for the annual Bike to Work Day event and almost 2,000 more than last year. Capital Bikeshare also saw a spike in ridership, recording more than 7,000 trips for five straight days, including 8,295 rides on Saturday, May 19, the second highest 1-day total in the system’s history.

Capital Bikeshare is the product of a unique public partnership between DDOT and Arlington County, Virginia.  The two jurisdictions worked closely to launch the program in the fall of 2010, offering the first regional bikesharing service in the nation. Based on the initial success of the program, both jurisdictions are now adding additional stations and bicycles and the city of Alexandria is expected to join the system this year. For more information about Capital Bikeshare, visit www.capitalbikeshare.com .