Choosing Bikeshare Locations in Silver Spring

Bike transit is coming to Silver Spring in September, which means that there are only a few weeks left to select the sites for Capital Bikeshare docking stations.

Anne Root, the bikeshare program manager for the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, presented some possible locations to the Silver Spring Urban District Advisory Committee at its July 18 meeting. 

Since the stations are solar-powered, each location needs at least 4 hours of direct sunlight.

Some locations are proving tricky to select. For example, it makes sense to have a station directly outside the Silver Spring Metro, where rail riders can quickly hop on a bike for the last leg of their journey -- but not so close that the bikeshare risks getting involved in the Silver Spring Transit Center mess. 

Another spot where bikeshare would like to be is near Veterans Plaza, "one of the hearts of Silver Spring," said Paul DeMaio, a consultant who works for MetroBike.

But committee members were anxious that the station not visually disrupt the Veterans Plaza atmosphere or create a jam point in the pedestrian flow around Ellsworth Drive and Fenton Street.

>> Where would you like to see a station in Silver Spring? Tell us in the comments.

Capital Bikeshare has a crowdsourcing map at http://mobilitylab.org/bikearlington/cabistations/ where you can suggest stations.