On Earth Day, you can ride Capital Bikeshare for free

D.C. area commuters can cut their emissions footprint and get some exercise in the process by taking Capital Bikeshare on Earth Day—Monday, April 22—free of charge. The regional bike-share service is offering free 30-minute rides all day long with special 24-hour passes.

Riders can use the passes Monday by entering “EARTHDAY19” in the Capital Bikeshare app. As usual, trips that last longer than 30 minutes will incur usage fees, and the bikes must be docked to end trips. Capital Bikeshare operates more than 530 stations and 4,300 bikes in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The service says it has recorded almost 700,000 trips in 2019.

That extent of ridership has “offset more than 1 million pounds of carbon from entering the atmosphere — the equivalent of carbon sequestered by 582 acres of forests in a single year,” Capital Bikeshare says in a release. Typically, single 30-minute rides cost $2 while one- and three-day passes cost $8 and $17, respectively. (Annual bike-share memberships cost $85.)

Capital Bikeshare had launched electric bikes last year, but pulled them from service earlier this week due to reports of braking issues. It is unclear when the electric bikes would return.