Celebrate Fessenden St.’s New CaBi Station

by Manolis Priniotakis
ANC 3F05 Commissioner

In April of this year, the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) responded to calls from residents and businesses of our neighborhood and installed two additional Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) stations along Connecticut Ave. at Fessenden and between Alton and Albemarle Streets. Please join my fellow ANC 3F commissioner David Lowell (3F06) and me for a ceremonial ribbon cutting at the Fessenden station on Saturday, June 29th at 11:00 a.m.

These new stations expand the transportation options for Forest Hills and Wakefield residents and link our neighborhood to nearby areas for shopping, sightseeing, and the occasional leisurely ride.

According to statistics provided by DDOT’s CaBi program manager Chris Holben, the station at Fessenden is proving to be a success. In May, there were 526 trips to and from the station, ranking it 137th out of 233 stations across the city. While this may seem a modest rank, it actually represents a phenomenal result due to its location as essentially an “end-of-the-line” station. Stations with multi-directional options – such as what you would find downtown – tend to score higher.

Although these locations did not rate stations in the first round of CaBi expansion, clear demand from our neighborhood spurred DDOT to place both spots near the top of the list for the expansion that occurred earlier this year. In particular, congratulations and thanks must go to Politics and Prose for championing the Fessenden spot and encouraging their customers to respond to a DDOT poll on station locations.

In addition, special thanks go to Chris Holben for his leadership of CaBi and responsiveness to the needs of our community, including a shift in station location to accommodate safety concerns related to sidewalk traffic and Terasol’s sidewalk café.