B-cycle and Capital Bikeshare Share Information

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One month before its first birthday Capital Bikeshare has released a new feature on its website that allows members to review total distance, calories burned, and carbon footprint reduction for their 200 most recent trips. The distances are measured "as-the-crow-flies" in a straight line between stations. B-Cycle also boasts personal profile pages in its nine bike-sharing operations across the country. Distance in these programs is measured by a GPS device located within each bike, from which calories burned and carbon avoided are extrapolated. Members can also track the duration of their trips, allowing them to see where they may have accumulated any fees.

For those without a local bike-share, B-cycle offers the B-effect, where any individual can enter his/her zip code to find out what a B-cycle bike-share would look like in their city. B-effect uses the population of a city to determine how many "B-stands" and cycles it would need, but also calculates how many calories burned, pounds lost, carbon emissions reduced, money saved, and traffic reduced would result from just 10% of that city’s population using the service for only 30 miles. While a 10% bike mode share is enviable for ALL American cities and most around the world, by the time the B-effect page asks "Want B-cycle in your community?", it has already built quite a convincing case.

image credit: B-cycle