- Bike sharing in DC
After at least two failed attempts to roll bikes on city’s street, the City of College Park is trying again, albeit on a much smaller scale.
The City will apply for the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority grant program, which is due on March 4, 2011.
The City staff has proposed requesting grant funds in the amount of $66,000 to initiate a pilot bikeshare program for the City that would build on the existing Capital Bikeshare program existing in Virginia and the District of Columbia.
The City staff proposed to put bike stations downtown, at the College Park Metro, and in the Hollywood Commercial District.
Matching funds of $66,000 from developer contributions ($10,000 from the Varsity project and $31,000 from the Domain project) and the City’s FY 11 Operating Budget ($25,000 ), according to City officials.
Earlier last year, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments(MWCOG) failed to win a $10 million for bikeshare expansion that it had applied through a federal stimulus program called TIGER. The City of College Park and UMd jointly applied for that grant application.
The original TIGER application asked for 2,250 bikes at 225 stations in DC, Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax City, Bethesda, Silver Spring, College Park, Hyattsville, and National Harbor, in addition to the 1,000 the District is already funding.
A second similar application also failed to secure funding from the USDOT.
The UMD is also looking at bike-sharing opportunities, as part of the University’s Facilities Master Plan.
Despite the lack of an “official” bike sharing program, the UMD’s weBike rolled out its own version of bike sharing between the Mazza apartments and the UMD campus last year.