Tom Vanderbilt writes in Slate about Capital Bike-Share. In response to his first question–what city would you have expected would have the best success?—it is not surprising to see that DC takes the cake. The density is right. DC is flat. There are lots of people making small business-type trips across town. There are tourists galore. Weather is usually not prohibitive. But empirically speaking, the analysis reported in the article suggests the the success of stations depend on:
-the age of its nearby population;
-the density of retail outlets (and in particular liquor licenses);
-the proximity of Metrorail stations;
-distance from the center of the system itself;
-essentially, the presence of a lot of white people.
