D.C. Bike Station A New Element In Urban Transportation

Washington D.C. is taking steps to make bike riding a more viable form of transportation.

Mayor Adrian Fenty, an avid biker, is in his element. Outside Union Station, he stands in front of a steel and glass structure shaped liked a bike helmet.

Fenty is inaugurating the D.C. Bikestation. It's a 1,600 square foot covered space which can house over 130 bikes and allows paying users secure access with a pass key. Fenty says the Bikestation sets a new national standard in making bikes an important element in urban public transit.

Gabe Klein heads D.C.'s department of transportation. According to Klein, the city will eventually want to make biking a primary mode of transportation, like in many European cities. "I'm envisioning that bike sharing could be its own transit system and that's how we're going to treat it," says Klein.

George Mino of Columbia, Maryland has waited a year to park his bike in one of the Bikestations' modern racks. Each day, Mino bikes from Union Station to his job at Crystal City but he's struggled with problems like theft and safe places to park. "There's nothing as peaceful as riding my bicycle here at sunrise across the Mall and seeing the sun rise over the tidal basin. It's good for the soul I guess," says Mino.

Klein says his department will soon announce major plans to further expand the city's bike sharing program in 2010.

Mana Rabiee reports...