Community Corner

City Staff Discusses Bringing Carshare, Capital Bikeshare to Del Ray

Alexandria begins outreach process of expanding transportation programs.

Carshare and Capital Bikeshare coordinators with Alexandria met with the Del Ray Citizen Association’s Land Use Committee last week at Mount Vernon Recreation Center to begin the outreach process of bringing the programs to the neighborhood.

Alexandria City Council approved the expansion of its eight-station Capital Bikeshare program in Old Town as part of its budget adoption last week. Planners are looking at adding stations in Del Ray and Carlyle, as well as potentially adding more in Old Town.

Capital Bikeshare makes bicycles available for shared use mainly for short rides. The bikes are available at stations and members who pay for an annual or short-term membership fee can remove them from stations and return them to stations elsewhere.

Find out what's happening in Del Raywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Capital Bikeshare recently hit four million trips across its system since it launched in Arlington County and the District in 2010. Alexandria joined the network—the largest in the nation until new networks are launched in Chicago and New York later this year—in 2010. Bikeshare will also soon expand to Montgomery County, Md. 

Carrie Sanders, the city’s Capital Bikeshare coordinator, said the solar-powered stations—which typically hold between 15 to 19 bikes in Alexandria—are generally dispersed about a quarter-mile away from each other. Instead of using the bikes for pleasure rides, the program is developed as a form of transit to help alleviate congestion and limit single-occupancy car trips with one-way rides (pleasure rides are OK, too).

Find out what's happening in Del Raywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Sanders said a variety of considerations are made in terms of deciding to place stations, including connections to other forms of transit, connectivity to the existing bikeshare network, potential demand for bicycles and proximity to mixed-use activity centers, tourist destinations, libraries and community centers.  

• See: Capital Bikeshare in Del Ray: Where Would You Place Stations?

“We’ve actually seen that [Capital Bikeshare] has brought more bike use and more personal bikes to the community,” Sanders said. “It introduces cycling as an option.”

Currently the closest Capital Bikeshare station to Del Ray is near the Braddock Road Metro station at the Braddock Place offices. Sanders said there's some consideration to place bikes closer to Mount Vernon Avenue.   

Several meeting attendees asked that any bikeshare stations—which can stretch from 22 feet to 51 feet in length depending on size—be placed in existing parking as not to disrupt pedestrian traffic on sidewalks.   

As with anything in Alexandria, the expansion of Capital Bikeshare will be subject to several more meetings, including visits with the Del Ray Business Association, Transportation Commission, Environmental Policy Commission, Board of Architectural Review (for those within the city’s historic districts) and potentially another open house, Sanders said.

ZipCar, the nation’s largest carsharing company, reached out to Alexandria about a variety of on-street parking spaces it would like to lease from the city, including one in Del Ray.

Carsharing companies allow people to reserve and rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. ZipCar already has a number of off-street spaces in the city and Hertz recently placed two cars on on-street spaces in Carlyle.

• See: City Approves 5 On-Street Carsharing Spaces in Old Town

Alexandria provides a monetary incentive to residents and businesses to encourage use of carsharing services through its Carshare Alexandria! program. Alexandria will reimburse residents and businesses for first-time application ($25 ) and annual membership fees ($65) within 30 Days of signing up for a carshare membership.

“In a recent study about carshare, it was found each space reduces the need for up to six vehicles,” said Faye Dastgheib, parking planner with Alexandria.

Within its list of requested spaces, ZipCar inquired about a spot in front of The Dairy Godmother in the 2300 block of Mount Vernon Avenue. Dastgheib said it was determined that the busy block wasn’t the best place. The city suggested a space in the 100 block of Stewart Avenue instead, near the city’s Department of Community and Human Services building.

In January, City Council passed an ordinance setting leasing rates and other parameters for on-street carshare spaces. Meter revenue helps determine leasing rates. Del Ray remains without a set rate because of the absence of parking meters in the area.

Dastgheib said the city is working on determining a rate for the Del Ray area.

Attendees of Thursday’s meeting were able to offer suggestions of where to place on-street carshare spaces and Capital Bikeshare stations on maps.

For the quickest updates on Del Ray, "like" Del Ray Patch on Facebook and follow @delraypatch on Twitter. Interested in getting Del Ray Patch directly into your inbox each morning? Learn more about our daily newsletter.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here