Clarification appended

Capital Bikeshare, a growing regional bike-sharing program,

is now offering riders the option of purchasing a five-day pass as a way to attract tourists as well as residents to the program.

The new passes went on sale Saturday, just in time for the beginning of the National Cherry

Blossom Festival, as well as peak tourism season for visitors to the District.

D.C. Department of Transportation spokesman John Lisle said the five-day pass gives visitors to the District another option to tour the city year round.

“The average length of [a tourist’s] stay in D.C. is three days,” Lisle said. The five-day pass costs $15 and would enable users to get two days for free in a five-day period, he said.

Capital Bikeshare previously had four rental options where riders could choose one-day passes for $5, three-day passes for $15, 30-day memberships for $25, or annual memberships for $75.

For daily and weekly memberships, members can use their credit cards at a Capital Bikeshare station to pay for an access code to retrieve bikes.

Monthly and annual members receive a key card that allows them access to the bikes at one of the more than 114 stations in D.C. and Arlington, Va.

Since the program began in 2010, more than 1,000 bikes have been available, an increase from the bike-sharing program D.C. started in 2008. Smart- BikeDC offered just 120 bikes at 10 stations, but access to bikes expanded as the District and Arlington partnered to create Capital Bikeshare.

Riders can take out a bike as many times as they want during the period of their memberships, and can return it to any Capital Bikeshare station.

The program is now working with the National Park Service to get locations on the National Mall. NPS currently prohibits Capital Bikeshare stations on the National Mall because of its agreements with existing vendors, Lisle said.

Katie Knight, general manager of Revolution Cycles in Georgetown, said her business and other bike-rental businesses will actually benefit from Capital Bikeshare’s new program.

“At Revolution, we love the Capital Bikeshare program because it promotes cycling in this area in a very public way andmakes bikes accessible to many people,” Knight said. “Part of our mission is to put ‘more butts on bikes’ and [Capital Bikeshare] is certainly helping to make that possible.”

Knight said her business offers bike-sharing options as well that are complements to Capital

Bikeshare’s.

The closest Capital Bikeshare location to GW’s Mount

Vernon Campus is located at 37th and O streets, by Georgetown

University. GW’s Foggy Bottom Campus has two Capital Bikeshare stations – one at

20th and E streets, and another by the Marvin Center at 21st and I streets.

This story was updated March 28, 2011 to reflect the following:
The Hatchet originally uploaded an article about Duke Ellington Park to this page.