DCist: What We’re Missing: Bikes by the Thousands

It’s been awhile since the last entry in this very occassional series. We love D.C., but we know it’s not perfect. Is there something you think we’re missing? Let us know. Official Washington likes to think that it is bicycle-friendly.

But we often hear a different story, involving dodging bricks, menacing drivers, annoying registrations, and brazen thieves. For all but the most hardcore cyclists among us, the thought of negotiating D.C.’s streets on two wheels is harrowing, which is a shame. Washington is blessed with compact development, historic neighborhoods, and beautiful scenery which may be a bit spread out to enjoy on foot, but is easily covered by bike.

Many who would love to tour the miles between Arlington Cemetery and the Capitol and beyond on two wheels are relegated to tour busses and Metro, which both limits their mobility and annoys the hell out of commuters. So, in the spirit of the upcoming Bike to Work Day on May 18, we pass on a solution from across the pond: municipal bikes.

In Paris, city officials have long wrestled with similar issues: Thousands of sightseers filling the roads with cars (and the air with exhaust) while attempting to visit its many historic sites. In response, the Parisian goverment is launching an effort this summer to provide cheap rental bikes. Lots of them.

From WaPo:

On July 15, the day after Bastille Day, Parisians will wake up to discover thousands of low-cost rental bikes at hundreds of high-tech bicycle stations scattered throughout the city, an ambitious program to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance the city’s image as a greener, quieter, more relaxed place.By the end of the year, organizers and city officials say, there should be 20,600 bikes at 1,450 stations — or about one station every 250 yards across the entire city. Based on experience elsewhere — particularly in Lyon, France’s third-largest city, which launched a similar system two years ago — regular users of the bikes will ride them almost for free.

At first, we cringe at the thought of hundreds of street-clogging lost tourists and a cottage industry of bike thefts. With more examination, though, there’s a lot to like. Providing bikes in those numbers creates a critical mass that changes the way the city deals with them — pushing DDOT to crate a more continuous and extensive bike network in the city. Streets and paths appropriate for bikers would get even more so, which pulls bicycles off of streets that aren’t, lessening the dangerous competition with autos.In Denmark, Copenhagen’s City Bikes program has been established for years, resulting in huge shifts in transportation, pollution, and the city’s image. As for theft, both Copenhagen and Helsinki’s bicycle programs have actually reduced it. The free bike use provided by the program both eliminates the need for theft and removes a considerable market for resale.

Now that we’ve got a triathlete Mayor, isn’t it time to get Washington some bikes?