Washington, DC, launches bike sharing program

At the National Bike Summit we saw a bike sharing program launched by Humana in--of all places-Louisville, Kentucky. What do you know--thousands of people signed up for the program and they have checked out an average of 100 bikes per day since September 2007.

Now a similar program is being introduced in Washington, DC.

Could we see a similar program in a Missouri city any time soon? If they can do it successfully in Louisville, why not here?

According to the Kansas City Star article:

More Washingtonians could be pedaling to meetings on Capitol Hill and other appointments when the city launches the nation's first European-style bike-sharing service next month.

The program, called SmartBike D.C., is similar to car-sharing services like Zipcar. Users must sign up for a $40 annual membership to gain access to a network of bikes stored at computerized racks around the city. To unlock the bike, users simply scan their access cards. The bikes can be used for up to three hours at a time and can be returned at any SmartBike station. In the beginning at least, there won't be any hourly charges.