19 New Capital Bikeshare Stations Installed In Reston

RESTON, VA — Local officials gathered Tuesday morning to cut the ribbon on a new Capital Bikeshare station in front of the Southgate Community Center in Reston.

The Southgate station is one of 19 new stations the Fairfax County Department of Transportation has been able to install in Reston thanks to Transportation Alternatives Program funding. This adds about 130 new bikes to the Reston, which has a total of 35 stations.

"As soon as we turn these on, people are using them," said Tom Biesiadny, FCDOT director. "We've good usage already and they've only been in for a couple of weeks."

Tom Biesiadny added with school back in session and the temperatures getting cooler, they expect to see more people take advantage of the Capital Bikeshare program.

"Obviously, we're covering territory that hasn't had bikeshare, so it will take a little bit of time for people to get used to it," he said. "We do see numbers from the low of the pandemic to really start to increase again."

Biesiadny acknowledged population density does play a part in deciding where to put new bikeshare stations, which is why the first ones in the area were installed around Reston Town Center and the Wiehle Metro Station.

"Now that that's been established, we can spread it out a little bit further and connect people from the neighborhoods into Reston Town Center and to the future Metrorail stations," he said

In adding, activity centers where people tend to gather, such as the Southgate Community Center, are also prime spots to install bikeshare stations.