November 2016
The typical duties fit well within the department and it may be possible to role bike share duties in with other responsibilities to create a new full time position. Direct access to funding for capital expenditures. As a public agency, DPW&T currently has access to regional, state, and federal funds which will be useful in covering the expected capital expenditures related to the procurement of bike share equipment.
Preliminary System Plan The recommended phasing is based on the expected demand for bike share within the Study Areas, and was developed using industry best practices, and experience in nearby jurisdictions with similar contexts including Arlington County, VA; City of Alexandria, VA; and Montgomery County, MD. Statistics from these programs are described in Table 3 below. Table 3: Program Comparison Alexandria Arlington Montgomery County Average Study Area Proposed
Bicycles 160 700 500 453 670
Stations 16 78 51 48 67
Docks 250 1,052 818 707 1,139
Dock to Bike Ratio 1.6 1.5 1.6 1.6 1.7
Stations per square mile 7.2 6.5 4.9 6.2 5.449
Density and Extent of Coverage A key decision is to determine the balance between breadth of coverage and station density. Some jurisdictions have chosen to launch their initial system with a high density of stations in smaller and more densely populated areas (e.g., Arlington County, City of Alexandria, City of Chattanooga, Salt Lake City), whereas others have chosen to spread out the stations at lower densities and cover a larger service area (e.g., Minneapolis-St. Paul, Montgomery County, Washington, D.C.). There are a number of aspects to consider in making this decision:
Providing bike share stations at high densities maximizes the visibility and convenience of the system by providing users with a reasonable expectation that there will be a station within walking distance from anywhere in the system area. This may also provide redundancy so that if a station is empty or full, a user can go to a nearby station and find an available bicycle or an empty dock. If stations are provided at high densities but the coverage area is too small, the system may not serve a sufficient range of destinations and may not be an effective alternative to walking. For stations at the edges of the system, it is important to make sure that there is additional capacity available (i.e., more docking points/racks) so that users are not faced with empty or full stations. In neighboring jurisdictions, station densities average approximately 6.2 stations per square mile. Table 3 compares neighboring jurisdictions’ station densities to the proposed system. In most bike share systems, station densities are higher in the core of the system and get progressively lower at the edges.
49 Includes four phases throughout ATHA and National Harbor study areas.
ATHA/Greenbelt Bike Share Feasibility Study
44