Smartbikes take over Washington

TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images It’s time to get your (Smart)bike on in D.C. The long-awaited bike-rental program kicks off this week in Washington, which joins the ranks of Barcelona and Paris as a leader in promoting ecofriendly transportation. Washington’s program is less ambitious than its European counterparts — with just 120 bikes to Paris’s 20,000 — ...

593270_080814_smartbike5.jpg
593270_080814_smartbike5.jpg

TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images

TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images

It’s time to get your (Smart)bike on in D.C.

The long-awaited bike-rental program kicks off this week in Washington, which joins the ranks of Barcelona and Paris as a leader in promoting ecofriendly transportation. Washington’s program is less ambitious than its European counterparts — with just 120 bikes to Paris’s 20,000 — but Jim Sebastian, bike and pedestrian program manager for the D.C. Transportation Department, expects the Smartbikes to be a big hit:

It’s really going to be replacing cab rides and car trips for a lot of folks looking to get around the city quickly… Plus they won’t have to worry about parking.”

An annual fee of $40 gets riders a program membership card and up to three hours’ use of a SmartBike. There’s no limit on the total number of daily trips, so riders could theoretically tool around all day on the cherry-red cycles.

No matter how long riders use the bikes, though, the city hopes they’ll be safe: Each SmartBike member gets a safe-cycling guide, a bike map of the district, and a manual outlining D.C.’s cycling laws. The program doesn’t provide helmets, but Sebastian does encourage riders to wear their own.

Riders will also have to provide their own locks, at least for the time being, which might pose potential problems of theft and vandalism (something Paris knows about). Still, the real litmus test will be how much use the program gets in its first few weeks. D.C.’s unseasonably mild August might spur some people to try the bikes. I’m tempted to give it a try this afternoon, if the weather holds.

Read More On North America

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.