You’re a harried executive, late for a crucial morning meeting thanks to a scheduling conflict. You finally reach the city but are still eight blocks from your office. Do you run, jump on the subway, or hail a taxi? For residents of Washington, D.C., there’s a fast and eco-friendly alternative: take a bike.

This spring sees the launch of SmartBike D.C., a new bike-sharing initiative from the outdoor advertising giant Clear Channel Adshel, and a potential model for similar programs nationwide. By joining the program, registered participants in the nation’s capital can access 120 “smart bikes” at 10 locations throughout the downtown area. They will be able to pedal the four-speed, one-size-fits-all bikes anywhere for up to three hours, provided they return their bike to a SmartBike kiosk.

“It’s going to be a great addition to a multimodal transportation system in D.C. and will go a long way to enhance our public transit system,” says Jeff Peel, SmartBike D.C.’s project manager. “You can get almost anywhere by Metro train or bus, but it may not always be the most convenient method. A bike-sharing program adds another layer to the transit network and helps alleviate congestion.”

The New Love Affair

Buoyed by the runaway success of bike-share programs in such European cities as Paris, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Oslo, proponents see the United States as the next frontier. “Bike sharing has been tremendously popular in Europe, and because of that, they’re adding bike facilities everywhere,” says Paul DeMaio of MetroBike LLC, a transportation consultancy.

“We always go on and on about how Americans have a love affair with their cars,” says Andy Clarke, executive director of the League of American Bicyclists. “But I’ve always felt they also have a love affair with the quickest, easiest, cheapest, most convenient way to get around. And if we make that something other than the car, Americans will love that just as much.”

Clearly, there are obstacles. On a national scale, liability is much more onerous in the United States. Helmets, though recommended, aren’t provided in the D.C. program. And many cities considering bike-share programs, such as Seattle, require helmets by law. As with most proposed programs, D.C. users must sign up in advance, paying a $40 initiation fee. In return, they get a SmartBike card that releases the bikes from a locking kiosk. If a bike is lost or stolen, the user must pay for it.

SmartBike D.C. is starting with a small number of bikes and kiosk locations, compared with programs in Europe. But the key to a thriving bike-share program, say Clarke and others, is to make the bikes ubiquitous. Clear Channel supplied Barcelona with 6,000 bikes, and advertiser JCDecaux provided more than 20,600 in Paris. The D.C. program, by comparison, will have 120 bikes initially. “The reason Barcelona and Paris are such success stories is because they were bold,” says DeMaio. “You don’t start a transit system with one bus.”

A Small Step for Cycling

Jim Sebastian of D.C.’s Department of Transportation is optimistic that bike sharing will succeed. But he says starting with a larger program would be risky. “We want to see if it works first,” he says. “Then we’ll expand.” Still, the District of Columbia offers compelling attributes that make it a solid candidate to host a bike-share program. There is a growing cycling culture, due in part to the district’s international composition.

Martina Schmidt, president of Clear Channel Adshel, says the company is pursuing a number of locales for future bike-sharing programs, including Portland, Ore., and San Francisco. The company held a three-day exhibition for transportation officials in New York last summer that Schmidt termed “very successful.” The beauty of a bike-share program, she says, is that “you can always customize the program to local needs. Even in Chicago, which is very cold in the winter, you can put the bikes in storage and open again in March. There’s almost no limit in terms of the climate or location.”

That fact, says DeMaio, is another reason the U.S. capital is an ideal launching pad. “We have Congress — the senators and the representatives and their staff who will be using these bikes every day will see how wonderful they are, and then they’ll want them back in their home states.” For more information on bike-sharing programs, visit metrobike.net.