Hubway

Hubway
Overview
Owner The municipalities of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville, Massachusetts.
Locale Greater Boston, United States
Transit type Bicycle sharing system
Number of stations 158 (June 2016)
Annual ridership 1,192,805 (2014)[1]
Website TheHubway.com
Operation
Began operation July 28, 2011
Operator(s) Motivate
Number of vehicles 1,461+ (June 2016)
Hubway bike visits New York

Hubway is a bicycle sharing system in the Boston, Massachusetts metro area. The system is operated by Motivate and uses technology provided by 8D Technologies, as well as PBSC Urban Solutions bikes and docking stations. The bike share program officially launched on July 28, 2011 with 61 stations and 600 bicycles. Expansions were already being planned for in the spring of 2012, adding more stations in Boston as well as the neighboring cities and towns of Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville. As of June 2016, the system has deployed 158 stations with a fleet of over 1,461 bikes.

History

On Earth Day, April 21, 2011, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino signed a contract with Alta Bicycle Share, officially announcing the launch of a bike share system in Boston. Planned as a regional system, Hubway was initiated under Mayor Menino's nationally recognized Boston Bikes Program, which aims to build Boston into one of the world's premiere cycling cities. The program was fully funded by $4.5 million in grants from the Federal Transit Administration and local organizations.[2]

Hubway officially launched on July 28, 2011, with an event in which members could ride bicycles from City Hall Plaza to a designated bicycle station. The event featured Mayor Menino, representatives from various sponsors, and related agencies.[3] In November 2011, Hubway was shutdown and disassembled for the winter as a preventative measure to counter New England winter weather.

On March 15, 2012, Hubway was relaunched for the season. By the end of the 2012 season on November 28, the system had 105 stations and 1,050 bikes. Again, Hubway was shutdown and disassembled for the winter. The system reopened on April 2, 2013, and by the end of November 2013 had expanded to 130 stations and 1,200 bikes. While a majority of the stations were shutdown again for the winter season, 25 stations in the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, remained open during a winter pilot program. After the full system relaunched on April 2, 2014, the system grew to 140 stations and over 1,300 bikes.[4]

Full system operations for 2014 concluded on November 26, though the system expanded its winter operations. For the second year, almost all Cambridge-based stations remained open year-round, and those stations were joined by 62 Boston-based stations that remained open through December 31, 2014. Inclement weather pushed back the full system reopening until April 17, 2015, and during the 2015 season the system grew to 155 stations and over 1,500 bicycles. In 2015, regular season operations concluded on November 25, though again Hubway expanded its winter operations further,[5] with 110 stations remaining open through December 7, 2015; of those, 107 will stay open through December 31; and of those, the 37 Cambridge-based stations will once again remain open year-round.[4]

Unionization - Transport Workers' Union Local 100

On December 4, 2014, Hubway's non-management employees voted 23-8, 74% in favor of joining TWU Local 100.[6] The unionization effort came after employees of CitiBike in NYC, owned by the same parent company Motivate (formerly named Alta Bicycle Share), joined TWU Local 100 in September 2014 [7] and was closely followed by similar efforts by employees of Alta Bicycle Share in Washington DC[8] and Chicago.[9]

Membership and payments

Annual members are given an RFID key like the one pictured here.

Hubway offers annual, monthly, 72-hour, and 24-hour memberships which allow access to the bicycle fleet. Like other bike sharing systems in areas that frequently experience snow and ice, Hubway typically suspends service and removes stations during the winter months, though the City of Cambridge operated a year-round pilot from December 2013 through March 2014.[10] An annual membership costs USD $85. A membership allows users to utilize a Hubway bicycle for unlimited trips up to 30 minutes in duration at no additional cost. After 30 minutes, additional "overtime" fees are incurred, though annual members and monthly members receive a 25% fee discount.[11]

Stations

Locations of Hubway stations as of September 2014
Bicycles at a Hubway station.

The system uses bicycles designed and manufactured by Montreal-based PBSC.[12] The majority of docking stations are also supplied by PBSC while the newest docking stations are designed and manufactured by 8D Technologies. The stations are scattered across the Boston neighborhoods of Allston-Brighton, Fenway-Kenmore, Back Bay, South End, Beacon Hill, West End, North End, and the Financial District, as well as adjoining municipalities of Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville.

Technology

The platform behind the bike share system is created by 8D Technologies, who also supply the server technology for BIXI Montreal, Citi Bike in New York City, Santander Cycles in London, Capital Bikeshare in Washington DC, and others.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Hubway Media Kit". Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Mayor Menino Signs First-Ever Bike Share Contract Launching Hubway in Boston". City of Boston. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  3. ↑ "Hubway Bike-Sharing Program Gets Rolling". WBUR. 29 July 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  4. 1 2 "Hubway Media Kit". Hubway. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  5. ↑ "Ready To Ride: Hubway Expands Winter Operations". WBUR. 3 December 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  6. ↑ "Hubway Workers Elect to Join Transit Union". Boston.com.
  7. ↑ "Hubway should extend do-good efforts to its own employees - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com.
  8. ↑ Lydia DePillis (24 October 2014). "D.C. Bikeshare workers look to unionize — and build a nationwide Bikeshare powerhouse". Washington Post.
  9. ↑ Chicago Tribune (3 November 2014). "Union seeks to represent Divvy workers". chicagotribune.com.
  10. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". Hubway. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  11. ↑ "Pricing". Hubway. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  12. ↑ "PBSC Homepage". Retrieved 12 July 2015.

Media related to Hubway at Wikimedia Commons

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