I'm going to review the new Capital Bikeshare app. And make sure to stick around to the end of the video for my
recommendation of whether it's worth it to download for your trip.
HELLO! Welcome to Trip Hacks DC. My name is Rob.
I'm a tour guide here in the nation's capital. If you're coming to Washington DC
and you're looking for the best tips, tricks, and hacks for exploring the city, make sure to subscribe to this channel, and hit the bell
notification icon so that you don't miss anything.
And if you're interested in having me personally show you around when you come, head on over to my website TripHacksDC.com
afterwards to see the tours that I offer. If you've used the Capital Bikeshare app before
leave a comment on this video and let me know what you think about it, otherwise
let's get started... If you haven't seen it before make sure to click over and watch my previous video on how to use Capital Bikeshare
for some basic information. In that video I suggest downloading the Spot Cycle app.
This is a general bike sharing app that works in a lot of different cities.
It shows you an interactive map of the city
and how many bikes and open docks are available at each bike share station. The new Capital Bikeshare app lets you do that too,
but it goes way further and lets you control your entire Capital Bikeshare
experience. What I mean is that you can use the app to buy a pass,
check out a bike, and do everything else on Capital Bikeshare without ever having to visit a kiosk.
I'm going to pull up a screenshot of my phone to the screen right now
and we'll do a little demo of the app.
OK, so when you launch the Capital Bikeshare app for the first time pulls up a splash screen with a nice person riding a bike,
and you have two options: get a pass or login. If this is your first time you'll click get a pass. Then it'll give you
a choice of which type of pass you want. You can do the single trip,
24-hour pass, three-day pass, 30 day or annual membership. For this video
I'm just gonna do the single trip. Click in there and it gives you some basic information
about how the system works - you get the first 30 minutes included. Trips longer than 30 minutes cost extra, etc.
Go ahead and click continue. This is where you'll need to create your account
and enter your phone number.
Then you'll have to create a password with these requirements.
Once all the requirements are met it will give you a little green checkmark next to each. Go ahead and click continue again.
Now you have to enter your
name, birth date, and gender.
And then go ahead and click continue.
It will give you a summary of your purchase. In this case I just bought the single trip for two dollars.
Go ahead and click continue again.
Then we come up with the liability waiver. Make sure you read the entire thing
and then click agree.
Then we get to the rental agreement. Again, read this big document and click agree.
Now you're going to need to enter your credit card information and then click complete purchase.
OK, so now we have purchased our single ride bike share pass so let's head outside, and see how it works.
OK, so now we're outside at the bike share station
and I'm going to use the app to check out my bike. So find the station where you're located,
click the little pin, and then unlock bike.
It gives me this code: 3 3 1 1 3 that I can take to any bike
and enter it in the dock to pull it out.
When you're ready to return the bike just push back into the dock like usual and the app will actually give you a push notification to
confirm that it worked.
And that's it!
OK, now that we're back inside here is my final recommendation for the Capital Bikeshare app. If you're going to use bikeshare during your
trip to DC then yes,
you should absolutely
download and use this app. One of the more annoying things about our bike share system is having to use the kiosk each time you
want to take out a bike. If there's a line at the kiosk or a bunch of people in front of you it can add
a decent amount of time when you just want to grab your bike and go. The big downside to the app is that even if
you're only gonna use it for a single trip or for one day
you still have to create an account and do all of that setup on the app in advance.
I strongly recommend that you do all of this at your hotel before you leave for the day.
I imagine the trying to do all of the setup while you're out on the street at a bike share station would actually be really
awkward. But overall if you plan to use bikeshare when you visit DC, then you should definitely use the app. And that's it!
Thank you for watching this video. If you found it helpful you can subscribe to this channel by clicking on the Trip Hacks DC
logo which is popping up right now at the bottom of the screen.
And if you're coming to town and want to take a tour with me, you can click on the Capitol dome which is on the
left side of my head that will take you over to my website
TripHacksDC.com where you can see the tours that I offer. Enjoy your trip!