the Hubway
Incase you weren’t aware, Boston just launched a new bike share program; and this is a wonderful thing. I’ve long believed that the one thing to improve cycling in our society is not more eccentric advocates, but more “regular people” riding bikes. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding out there as to what a bike share is and is not, I know I was confused when I first heard about the idea and plan to bring a bike share to the city (and had many of the same thoughts/questions I’m addressing below). I don’t work for the Hubway, I’m simply a huge fan of it; fewer “cyclists” (and all the elitist/eccentric connotations that come with it) and more “people-on-bikes” is the way to go.
Let’s start off with a basic overview of what this is: the Hubway as it exists today is a collection of 61 stations and 610 bicycles spread throughout Boston and it’s neighborhoods: Allston, Brighton, Mission Hill, Roxbury, South End, Waterfront, Downtown, Back Bay, etc… (incase you need it, here’s a refresher on the neighborhoods of Boston). A 24 hour, 3 day, or Annual (9 month - no bikes during the winter months) membership ($5/$12/$85) in the system gains you access to these bikes and stations, from there, any trip under 30min is free, and trips over 30min incur fees. The bikes are burley machines with some great and practical features: 3-speed internal hub (feels like: easy, really-easy, and you’d-be-faster-walking), roller brakes (never wear out, super low maintenance), front rack w/ bungee (for a briefcase or jacket, not big enough for groceries), chain guards (to keep your pants clean), fenders (to keep you dry), adjustable seatpost, and built-in LED flashing lights. These bikes will fit most adults with a simple raising or lowering of the seat post.
Now that we’ve got the basics down, let’s move on to a few common misconceptions. This list stems from what I see online and hear in person. I think a lot of these are from people confusing a bicycle as a toy for recreation (or some elitist fitness device) and bicycles as a utility for transportation.
Why do I want this?
The Hubway is a fantastic addition to complement and extend our existing public transportation infrastructure with more options and flexibility. We’ll skip the public health and exercise argument (which mostly serves to encourage bicycles only as fitness devices), in a nutshell: it’s another option to the city’s public transportation system, you can move faster through the city on your own schedule.
Who would want to ride a bike on Mass Ave, that doesn’t sound like very much fun.
I’d rather not drive down Mass Ave in Boston either, but if that’s my commute, then it is what it is. Hubway bikes are not intended for a joy rides (like, along the esplanade on the Dr. Paul Dudley White Bike Path), these are vehicles for getting from station to station. Think of it as you would the subway or the bus. For example, my office is in the train-less South End neighborhood of Boston and in my commute to the office the closest Green Line station to the South End is still a 1 mile walk, instead of a 20min walk I can now cover that in a 10min bike ride.
Why are there no bike locks?
The Hubway seems prohibitively expensive after just a few hours.
The system is not like a car-share service, it is really intended for short (you can realistically cover most of Boston in 30 min, free) trips from station to station. As soon as you pull over to grab a cup of coffee or lock the bike to a rack to run an errand, you’re taking a bike out of the system and it’s no long available for the next user. You would never expect a train car to pull over and stop while you got a cup of coffee; no, you’d go to the next station and go from there. These Hubway bikes should really be thought of along the same lines, granted you are free to do just those things, but the system is in place to encourage the station-to-station behavior, remember that you don’t have to return the bike to the station you got it from! Actually, one behavior (loophole?) that is encouraged, is if your trip will take longer than 30min, go ahead and dock the bike at the nearest station and grab another bike, effectively restarting your free 30min timer. If you want to go for a longer ride, there are several options for renting bikes at more reasonable (multi)day-rates.
Great, there’s just going to be hordes of helmet less cyclists riding around
Well, the Hubway and the city have gone through great lengths to provide helmets and make helmets accessible to users, the terms and conditions that everyone agrees to when entering the system says that all operators must wear helmets. The Hubway was running pre-launch membership drives giving away free helmets and has worked with a number of retailers at locations near the Hubway stations to stock adult helmets for cheap (really cheap, I think I saw $7.99 somewhere). While we’re on the subject of helmets; often, people don’t wear helmets out of vanity and then when they do wear a helmet it’s some disaster that’s been handed around for the past three decades. Do yourself a favor, spend the $8 and get a new one or, better yet, visit one of the many bike shops in the city and get a good looking and effective urban helmet for short money.
But cyclists never follow the rules of the road.
Unfortunately, neither do drivers or pedestrians (if we’re going to define whole groups of people by the few bad apples), but one does not justify the other; it boggles my mind when I see drivers that complain about cyclists proceed to hop on a bike and perpetrate the exact behavior they so vocally abhor. People are people, there are inconsiderate people that will continue to act without regard for others regardless of their method of transportation, you can’t limit access to the roads based on which group of vehicle operators follows the rules better than the next, because then there’d be no one on the roads. But now we’re starting to drift off-topic and get back into the who-belongs-on-my-public-road-and-who-does-not argument covered previously. The Hubway does make an effort to educate it’s users on proper etiquette: stopping for red lights and stop signs, riding in the same direction of traffic, turning from turning lanes, using hand signals, etc… part of this problem is that the rules of the road concerning bicycles has been rethought in recent history, and there are still people of the old school with habits that are no longer acceptable teaching the new generation.
- Incorrect: riding against traffic, make a left turn by making a series of rights, signaling directions with only the left arm.
- Correct: riding with the flow of traffic, turn left from left-turn lanes, signal with the arm pointing in the direction that you want to turn.
Lots of the frustration on both sides come from these misunderstandings.
I would use it, if it were closer to my home, my office, etc…
We’ve gotta start somewhere! 61 stations and 610 bikes is no small feat, the system will grow and expand over time, immediate plans are to expand into: Somerville, Cambridge, and Brookline. But again, this is intended to be part of a larger multi-modal public transportation strategy, you would walk 5 minutes to the closest T Station, right?
The price doesn’t seem competitive against the T and I can buy a used bike for $85
Let’s look at the economics of the situation, for simplicity we’ll take the role of an occasional Hubway rider and compare it to an occasional T rider (no annual membership discount for the bike, and no Charlie Card discount for the train).
The T is $2.00 per ride/trip no matter how many stops you ride. The Hubway is $5 per 24 hours, no matter how many trips you take. Granted, if you are only going one-way in a 24 hour period on either method, the T is the cheapest option (but how often does that happen?) As soon as you start your return trip, you’re getting within $1 of the Hubway daily rate… take into account waiting for trains (it always seems like there are 5 trains that you don’t want - either other lines or other direction - on the Green Line for every one that you do) or if you have to switch lines, $1 might be worth getting there faster. 3 or more trips in a day, you’re saving money. Not to mention the freedom of being on your own schedule.
Now some of the benefits to being a Hubway member, versus your own $85 dream machine, is that you’re paying someone to keep the bike and the stations maintained, you have 610 bikes at your disposal scattered throughout the city. Once you’re off the bike, you don’t have to lock it up anywhere and continuously bring it with you as you go about your day (evening, night) - not being chained to a vehicle (any vehicle) while in a city is great.
What happens when there is no more room at a station?
The plan is to have enough stations and the right balance of bikes and docking spaces that this won’t happen, (there is actually a crew that drives around rebalancing stations throughout the day) in the event that this happens though, you will be able to get an extra 15min (free) to go to the next closest station a short ride and walk away.
So what would be a real world example of how this is great?
The other night, after work; I found myself over by South Station and it was time to go home. I could have taken the Red Line from South Station to Park Street, then grabbed a Green Line B Train to the Saint Paul Street stop and if I was lucky there would be a Red Line train waiting for me at South Station and a Green Line B Train waiting for me at Park Street I could have made the trip Station to Station in 29 minutes (according to Google Maps), reality of the situation is that this would have been closer to a 45min trip. Luckily, both my start point and end points had Hubway stations, so I grabbed a Hubway bike and was able to ride (on a fantastic summer night) from Station to Station in 20 minutes, including stopping at red lights and stop signs, I even tracked it: http://rnkpr.com/ar1fof.
Other examples so far:
- South End to Waterfront: No train, 45 min walk, 30 min by Bus, 15 min by Hubway.
- Coply Station to South End: No train, 20 min walk, 15 min by Bus, 10 min by Hubway.
That about wraps it up, I’m sure there are more questions that could be answered and more examples of how this could fit into your life… I didn’t even get into what a Train-Bike commute would be like (it would be awesome), but I hope this helps shed some light on how this all works and how it diversifies our existing public transportation infrastructure. See you out there!
For more info straight from the source: http://www.thehubway.com/
An interactive map of stations and their statuses: http://www.thehubway.com/stations
