Starting next month, people in prefix = st1 /Washingtonwill be able to rent a bicycle day and night with a membership card. A new company called SmartBike will make 120 bicycles available at 10 spots in the city. "There's a lot of stress on our transit systems," said Jim Sebastian, who manages bicycle and pedestrian programs forWashington's Transportation Department. Offering another choice, Mr Sebastian said, "It will help us reduce traffic jam and pollution, as well as parking problems." In the deal, the company will have the advertising rights in the city's bus shelters and it has reached a similar deal with San Erancisco. Chicago andPortland,Ore., are also considering the program. For a $40 annual membership fee, SmartBike users can check out three-speed bicycles for three hours at a time. The program will not provide helmets   but does encourage their use. Similar programs have proved successful in Europe. The Ve1ib program in Paris and Bicing in Barcelona, Spain, both started around a year ago and already offer thousands of bicycles. Mr Sebastian, who started trying to bring bike-sharing to Washington even before its success in Paris and Barcelona, said he believed that the program could grow within a year and hoped that it would eventually offer 1 000 bicycles. "But studies showed that many bikes would get stolen in a day, or within a few weeks," said Paul DeMaio, a Washington-area bike-sharing consultant. Improved technology allows programs to better protect bicycles. In Washington, SmartBike users who keep bicycles longer than the three-hour maximum will receive demerits and could eventually lose renting privileges. Bicycles gone for more than 48 hours will be considered lost, with the last user charged a $200 replacement fee. The low cost could be one of the program's major selling points. At GeorgeWashingtonUniversityin Foggy Bottom, one of the program's 10 locations, students were unsure how often they would use SmartBike, but said its price made it worth a try. What will attract the customers most in the program?
Low price. Great convenience. New idea. High quality.