People used the bikes for one million rides during the last year. Mr. Holben says this works out to fifty thousand fewer automobile trips. A survey showed that five percent of members would have used cars had bikes not been available.

In addition to Arlington, two other Washington suburbs have agreed to join the network: Montgomery County, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia. The program is expected to grow to almost three hundred stations and almost three thousand bikes by the end of this year.

You can watch a video about Capital Bikeshare at voaspecialenglish.com.

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FAITH LAPIDUS: Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake, with reporting by Kane Farabaugh, Selah Hennessy and Muhammad Atif. I'm Faith Lapidus.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I'm Christopher Cruise. You can find texts and MP3s of our programs, along with English teaching activities, at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.