Capital Bikeshare to remain closed Wednesday

The dig-out is very slow going. Most stations are still inaccessible. We'll remain closed 1/27 to focus on shoveling https://t.co/wMLpNAiGpT

— Capital Bikeshare (@bikeshare) January 26, 2016

Bad news for folks who’ve come to depend on Capital Bikeshare to get where they’re going: Company officials announced Tuesday that they will remain closed Wednesday.

The goal is to give staff members another day to remove the heavy snow that has blanketed stations across the region. The organization explained the decision in a message on its Web page:

Our priority is to provide safe access to our bikeshare stations. Each jurisdiction — the District of Columbia, Arlington County, the City of Alexandria and Montgomery County — will reopen their portion of the system once a useful number of their stations are cleared for use. We will announce any reopenings on capitalbikeshare.com, via email, Facebook and Twitter.

Company officials said they explored the idea of having members help shovel them out, as the car sharing service Car2Go did, but didn’t pursue the idea because of insurance concerns. Still, they said, some intrepid citizens did help dig out a couple of stations, including one at Park Road and Holmead Place in NW Washington. Thanks to their labors, that station has been clear for three days.