DC to launch nation's first European-style bike share

The program, called SmartBike D.C., is similar to car-sharing services like Zipcar. Users must sign up for a $40 annual membership to gain access to a network of bikes stored at computerized racks around the city. To unlock the bike, users simply scan their access cards. The bikes can be used for up to three hours at a time and can be returned at any SmartBike station. In the beginning at least, there won't be any hourly charges.

The District of Columbia program is starting small, with just 10 stations and 120 bikes. In contrast, Paris started its service last summer with more than 10,600 bikes at 750 stations. But D.C. officials are eager to expand it quickly if the response is good. Proponents say the program easily could be expanded to more than 1,000 bikes at more than 100 stations within a year.

"This is one more transportation option for residents, visitors and workers," said Jim Sebastian, who runs the D.C. Department of Transportation's bicycle programs.

At the current size, the bike share is unlikely to make a dent in easing congestion on city streets or crowding on the subway, Sebastian acknowledged. But "if it works and we expand it, then it will," he said.

SmartBike is run by Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc., which handles bus-shelter advertising for D.C. The company runs the bike-sharing programs in 13 European cities, including Barcelona, Spain, and Oslo, Norway.

Clear Channel Outdoor started its first bike-sharing program in Rennes, France, in 1998, said Martina Schmidt, the company's director of SmartBikes. The company sees it as another free outdoor amenity, like bus shelters, that it can offer cities and use to generate advertising revenue.

In most cities where the program operates, advertising is attached to the bike stations or on the bikes themselves. In D.C., there won't be advertising initially, but that could change if the program is expanded, Schmidt said.

Still, the city didn't have to spend any money to set up the program because it is part of its bus-shelter contract with Clear Channel Outdoor. Sebastian said the city likely is getting a smaller percentage of the revenue from bus-shelter advertising because of the costs associated with the bike program, but officials haven't put a number on the lost revenue.

Paul DeMaio, who owns bike-sharing consultancy MetroBike LLC, said a program like Clear Channel Outdoor's costs about $4,500 per bike to start. Beyond the bikes themselves, that figure includes capital costs associated with the computerized bike racks, he said.