Capital Bikeshare Rolls into Courthouse and Clarendon

Capital Bikeshare’s long-anticipated expansion down the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor finally got moving last week, with a new station near the intersection of Wilson Boulevard and Uhle Street in Courthouse.

This marked the start of a small short-term expansion, which will be followed by a much bigger one in the spring and summer.

Some Arlington Capital Bikeshare members have expressed frustration with the slow pace of the rollout in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. The originally anticipated expansion schedule has been slowed by procurement processing delays, some site challenges, and Capital Bikeshare’s .

Arlington hasn’t yet been able to benefit from the dense network that Washington enjoys, with the present usefulness of Arlington’s stations essentially limited to traveling into the district from Rosslyn or getting around Crystal City. With the expansion up the corridor, however, that should start changing.

The first expansion station, near Wilson and Uhle, is on a specially-built concrete pad next to . It’s a replacement for the one originally scheduled to be installed close to the Courthouse Metro station. The new location doesn’t create any encroachment problems on the sidewalk and is on county-owned land.

Up Wilson Boulevard, a second expansion station has been installed outside of the  between Edgewood and Fillmore streets. Directly across from and , it’s likely that this station will prove popular as a quick connection to Courthouse and Clarendon Metro stations.

According to Capital Bikeshare, we’ll see four more new stations in Clarendon by the end of the month. Station foundation construction has already started at the corner of Wilson Boulevard and Franklin Street. Perhaps the racers that congregate at the will be tempted to use them for a morning hill ride?

Other locations will include the corner of Fillmore Street and Clarendon Boulevard, providing access to plenty of shopping and restaurants; a station at Highland Street and Clarendon Boulevard will serve those who use the Clarendon Metro.

Ballston readers may be disappointed to hear that the closest this round of expansions will get to them is a station near , at Fairfax Drive and Wilson Boulevard. They will likely have to wait until spring to before they see stations close to them. Those who are curious about where these stations will be located can see Capital Bikeshare’s map of planned stations here. 

Capital Bikeshare might be slow in expanding in Arlington, but it's happening. Finally.

Mark Blacknell is chair of the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee, a member of the board of directors of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, and a League Cycling Instructor.