City of Boston relaunches Hubway Bikeshare System, announces expansion of service stations

The Boston Transportation Department/Boston Bikes today officially re-launched the full New BalanceHubway bike-share system and announced plans for an expansion of Hubwayservice to reach the neighborhoods of Roxbury and North Dorchester. Stations all across Boston, along with Somerville and Brookline, are now open for the season.

"The Hubway bike-share system offers residents and visitors a healthy, affordable way to travel throughout our city and I am excited that this year we are expanding the service to reach even more neighborhoods," said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. "As demand continues to grow, I look forward to working with our partners to explore additional opportunities to provide this active transportation service to the people of Boston."  

A celebration of the return of the Hubway bikes was held today at the Hubwaystation in front of the New Balance Experience Store on Boylston where Commissioner Fiandaca of the Boston Transportation Department joined Matt LeBretton, New Balance Vice President for Public Affairs. The popular bike-share system recently recorded the four millionth trip taken by Hubway users since the system's launch in 2011.

"We look forward to New Balance Hubway's strongest season ever, with 10 new stations planned for Roxbury and North Dorchester in 2016, a fifth birthday celebration this summer, and our 5 millionth trip anticipated for this Fall," said Boston Transportation Commissioner Fiandaca. "With these new stations, Boston continues to be a national leader in its commitment to equity in bike-share. The City of Boston would like to thank the Barr Foundation for supporting the establishment of these new stations with a $525,000 grant, as well as for partnering with us to ensure that Boston is a sustainable and vibrant city for all residents and visitors."  

"From its first to its four millionth ride," said Mary Skelton Roberts, Senior Program Officer at the Barr Foundation. "New Balance Hubway has demonstrated that Boston can lead, and that Bostonians will embrace new, innovative ways to close transportation gaps, and to enhance mobility for residents and visitors. It is our privilege to be able to support this latest expansion into Roxbury and North Dorchester, to better connect more people to more places they want and need to go for work, school, and play throughout the region."  

The Boston Transportation Department will hold community workshops to invite public input into the plans for the new stations. Following the workshops, crews from local youth-based organizations will conduct surveys of possible locations for new stations, with opportunities for residents to participate by text message, online and in-person. These participation options are being providing in an effort to engage as many people in the community as possible in the process.  Public planning for the new stations will conclude with an Open House on June 9 and 11.   
Below is more information about the workshops and open houses:  

• Community Workshop - May 12, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m., Roxbury YMCA

• Community Workshop - May 14, 10:00 - 11:30 a.m., Dudley Sq. Library

• Community Open House - June 9, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., Roxbury YMCA

• Community Open House - June 11, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Grove Hall Library 

  The New Balance Hubway system is regional public transportation by bike, owned by the municipalities of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville.  Since opening in 2011, Hubway users have logged over six million bicycle miles, burning 168 million calories and offsetting nearly 2,000 tons of CO2 emissions.  Hubway has nearly 13,000 annual members and last year sold more than 91,000 24-Hour subscriptions, 8,700 72-Hour subscriptions, and 3,400 monthly subscriptions. In 2015 alone, Hubway riders took 1,122,475 trips and pedaled approximately 2.1 million miles.  

About Hubway: New Balance Hubway is metro-Boston's bike-sharing system with more than 1,600 bikes at 160 stations in Boston, Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville.  The City of Boston has the longest-running subsidized bike-share membership program in the country, offering Hubway memberships to low-income residents for just $5 per year.  For more information about subsidized memberships please visit http://www.bostonbikes.org/ or call #617-635-1470.  Find out more about the New Balance Hubway system, station expansions, deployments, and outages/closures at www.thehubway.com, on Twitter and on Facebook at  www.facebook.com/Hubway.