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Maybe Metro’s yearlong maintenance plan is beginning to make the District look more like Copenhagen after all.
The District Department of Transportation on Wednesday announced that Capital Bikeshare set a new record for use during the first week of SafeTrack, the first surge of which is wrapping up along the Orange and Silver lines in Virginia. DDOT reports that the red bikeshare service had 89,436 users last week, six percent greater than the last record week seen during Bike to Work Week last May. Capital Bikeshare is offering $2 single-trip rides for the duration of SafeTrack. DDOT says single-trip fare usage increased to more than 1,300 daily trips as compared to about 600 before the offer.
“Overall bike ridership is also up,” the agency notes in a release. “Weekday ridership is 31 percent higher on the 15th Street cycle track with almost 600 more bike trips per day compared to June 2015. Ridership is up 40 percent on the Met Branch Trail with over 270 more bike trips per day, and 59 percent higher on Eye Street SW with an increase of 230 more bike trips per day. Similarly, the Key Bridge crossing to and from North Arlington shows a 42 percent increase in weekday bike trips with 900 more trips per day for the first two weeks of June compared to June 2015 weekdays.”
So if you’ve had a more difficult time than usual finding a bike or docking at your favorite bikeshare station(s), your experience may be more than anecdotal. Still, DDOT says it’s dispatched extra morning corral service at 17th and K streets NW, on top of existing corral service at 21st and Eye streets NW and 13th Street and New York Avenue NW.
DDOT says it will also increase bikeshare capacity at the Eastern Market Metro station during the second surge of SafeTrack, which begins on Saturday and lasts for 16 days. That surge involves the first segment shutdown of Metro tracks: on the Orange, Blue, and Silver lines from Eastern Market to Minnesota Avenue, and on the Blue line between Arlington Cemetery and Rosslyn. See how it will to affect your commute, whether you pass those stations or not, here.
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