D.C., Latest City To Look At Bike-Share Sponsorship

After writing last week about how New York City's bikeshare program is looking for four corporate partners, it seems DC may be in line as well. Yesterday was the program's one year anniversary, and after serving up more than 1 million rentals in the first year, the program's project manager says Capital Bikeshare may be ready to monetize all those rides with sponsorship.

Huffington Post writes:

Chris Holben, the program's project manager for DDOT, said Capital Bikeshare is currently looking into ways to change how operating costs are met. One solution: A systemwide sponsorship "similar to the naming rights of a stadium." It might, Holben said, look like banking group Barclays' sponsorship of London's bike-sharing system, which is called Barclays Cycle Hire.

While the idea has yet to be formally proposed and no company has been approached, Holben said, "it could be [the company's] name on every bike, the website, the color scheme of the brand." That means the bikes' iconic red color might be abandoned.