from desert to district

The Capital Bikeshare program now knows its own rush hours — coinciding, not surprisingly, with everybody else’s rush hour. At its peak, bikes are rapidly snapped up from docking stations in neighborhoods dense with younger people — Capitol Hill, Dupont Circle, Columbia Heights and the U Street corridor.

Trucks from Alta Bicycle Share, the contractor that runs the program, buzz around to the downtown office buildings where the bikes end up, collecting them and rushing them back to neighborhoods for the next wave of commuters.

“There have been complaints that people come out and there are no bikes available, and the other issue is that you get downtown to work and the docking stations are all filled,” said John Lisle, District Department of Transportation spokesman. “Hopefully, within 15 to 20 minutes [Alta] moves the bikes out and back to the people who want to use them next.”

via PostLocal