I was hearing some buzz around the Mobility Lab offices – where we share space with groups like Capital Bikeshare, BikeArlington, and goDCgo – about this 25-minute documentary premiering at last month’s Environmental Film Festival in Washington D.C. So I got ahold of Rebalancing filmmaker Tim Cone through the festival’s organizers to ask him some questions about why he chose to make a movie about Capital Bikeshare.

PM: Where and when did Rebalancing play at the D.C. Environmental Film Festival?

TC: Rebalancing screened on Friday, March 21, 2014 at the Elihu Root auditorium of the Carnegie Institution for Science in D.C.

How was it received?

The event was sold out.

How was the feedback?

A Capital Bikeshare employee emailed me afterward: “I liked that it didn’t come across as either pro or con Bikeshare – the sign of a good documentary that informs without pushing an agenda.”

The film does a really nice job of telling some of the story of Capital Bikeshare. There are many benefits, but what inspired you to focus on transportation within the theme of the environment?

I wanted to make a film that focused on environmental issues in D.C., so I asked people in the city government: What has been your biggest achievement with regard to D.C.’s environment? They often answered: “Encouraging the use of bicycles.” So I chose this as my topic.

What are the key things you learned about Capital Bikeshare?

First and foremost, I learned how – in terms of the numbers of bicycles being used – the program is phenomenally successful.

More generally, I realized how the availability of bicycles changes the way people think about time and space. It seems analogous to the construction of the United States highway system in the 1950s, which changed how people measured distances. Similarly, though now on a local level, of course, Bikeshare changes how we think of meeting a friend in another part of town, or doing that extra errand before heading home at the end of the workday.

Mobility Lab focuses on how many drive-alone car trips can be removed from the roads by alternate forms of transportation such as Bikeshare. It’s interesting that you didn’t come to any sweeping conclusions about that in your film. Why?

If you take a look at the level of traffic on nearby highways like I-66 or the Capital Beltway, or even at the main arteries of Washington D.C. during rush hour, it’s really hard to say, “Wow, Bikeshare is really making a difference.” In Paris, recently, they had to limit vehicular traffic for an entire day because of excessive air pollution – and Paris has had a bikeshare program since 2007. So I think one has to be careful before making sweeping conclusions.

The only slightly negative environmental element about Capital Bikeshare that the film mentions has to do with the vans that drive around and rebalance the bike stations. Chris Eatough of BikeArlington tells me that the amount of van trips to bikeshare trips is minimal when you consider the car trips being taken off the roads by the bikes. Do you feel this is a serious issue?

In my film, Jim Sebastian of DDOT says that “the goal ultimately is not to have vans driving around the city all day rebalancing bike stations, but to have the system, to the extent possible, rebalance itself.”

I think everyone recognizes, without making too much of a big deal out of it, that every type of transportation system creates its own externalities, and we ought be aware that Bikeshare does too. Because of the hills in D.C., there is a tendency for people to coast down to come to work in the morning, but not to pedal back uphill to return home. If we’re using diesel-burning vans to carry those bikes back up the hill in the evening just so people can coast down again the following morning, one becomes skeptical about the program – or at least this part of it.

How much of a game changer for people’s health, the environment, our connectivity, and other relevant issues do you think bikeshare is in this country?

I’m only guessing – but I think it does have the potential to be a game changer. People are very aware – say, when they’re looking at where to buy a home – of the advantages and disadvantages of where they choose to live. Bikeshare is a network, a new network – but it’s only available if you live or work inside the network. So, to the extent people like this new network – and the usage numbers indicate they do – it’s going to attract people to live and work in a place that has a bikeshare program.

Also, bikeshare seems like a precursor of car-sharing programs – which seem to promise significant reductions in traffic and auto emissions. And, more generally, sharing resources is a good thing for any society to be promoting – whether for the sake of the environment, or for the sake of survival.

Were you a member of CaBi before production? Are you now?

I joined CaBi as a result of making my film. I plan to renew my membership!

What’s next for Rebalancing? What is your end goal with the movie?

Honestly, I don’t think my film had any particular goal aside from getting itself done. It was my first attempt to make a documentary for an audience. My focus was on framing the shots correctly, recording decent sound, conducting good interviews, and then editing it all into a story with a narrative arc. If these goals were accomplished, anything else would be icing on the cake. I’ve submitted Rebalancing to be screened at the Bicycle Film Festival in the United States. We’ll see if it gets accepted.

Thanks for answering all these questions. Last one: How did you get into filmmaking?

After I went to see contemporary art exhibitions (I own a modest collection of contemporary art), people would ask me: “So Tim, what did you think?” And I realized I couldn’t remember anything I’d seen. So as a way of remembering what I’d seen, I started making films about the exhibitions – for example, Christo’s Gates in Central Park in 2005, or the Biennale international art exhibition in Venice.

One might think this interest in contemporary art has nothing to do with Capital Bikeshare – but in a way, it does. By looking at contemporary art, I become aware of things that are “in the air,” or so to speak “on the cutting edge.” And Capital Bikeshare, which started in D.C. in 2010, is, in a sense, a work of contemporary art. It is contemporary, yet it’s also a symbol – a symbol of our future.