Dwight Eisenhower once said, “I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” The same might be said for bike share.

Seven years after Washington, D.C., debuted the first major, modern, and carefully planned bike-share system in the U.S., the District opened the streets Wednesday to its younger, scrappier cousins: private, dockless bike-share companies.

Three contenders—Spin, LimeBike, and Mobike—are launching 400 bikes each into the nation’s capital for a trial run of …