{"id":23013,"date":"2011-07-29T11:39:39","date_gmt":"2011-07-29T15:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/?p=23013"},"modified":"2019-11-10T17:24:24","modified_gmt":"2019-11-10T21:24:24","slug":"boston-bike-share","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/23013\/boston-bike-share\/","title":{"rendered":"The Car is No Longer King: Boston Launches Hubway Bike Share"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 29, 2011–<\/em><\/p>\n

The horn sounded and 200 bikes poured into the streets of Boston, marking the opening of the first bike-sharing program of Massachusetts and a step toward the mayor\u2019s dream of establishing the city as a world-class cycling destination.<\/p>\n

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino presided over the New Balance Hubway bike-share<\/strong> opening ceremony in City Hall Plaza on Thursday and watched as the silver and black bikes started their journey toward several of the 61 stations that make up the new bike-sharing network.<\/p>\n

\u201dBoston\u2019s bike-share represents how far we have shifted on thinking about transportation in our city,\u201d Menino said. \u201cThe car is no longer king in Boston.\u201d
\n<\/p>\n

\"Mayor

Officials hope the hundreds of bikes will accommodate both residents and casual users, and have made one- or three-day access available for $5 and $12 respectively. Year-long membership costs $85, but a special $60 annual rate is available through the end of July. Rides are free for the first half hour, with incremental charges tacked on after. Bikes can be returned to any kiosk in the city, so a round trip is not necessary for riders using mixed modes of transportation.<\/p>\n

Jocelyn Gaudi, the member care manager at Hubway-affiliate Alta Bicycle Share, said after living and biking in the city 365 days a year for three years, she knows the potential impact of Hubway.<\/p>\n

\u201cFolks that own their own bikes but don\u2019t want to worry about \u2018Where am I going to park it when I visit that neighborhood?\u2019 or, \u2018My bike has a flat tire but I still want to get a ride in today,\u2019 that\u2019s when the system comes in handy for them,\u201d Gaudi said. \u201cThey can just walk out their front door, walk a few blocks, rent a bike and still do what they\u2019re used to doing without the hassle of changing a tire that morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Hubway

\u201cPeople who are going to be riding these bikes aren\u2019t that bike savvy, especially if you have tourists coming through. The drivers in the city are not bike friendly; they\u2019re not bike aware and they don\u2019t care to be. That education is going to be met with some resistance and take a while before biking in the city is safe,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n

Menino told offManhattan on Thursday morning that “[the bike share program] continues to improve our status in the green community. No longer is the car in control of Boston. We want more people cycling, more people running and more people walking for a more and more environmentally-sound city,” he said. “There are 600 bikes available at 61 stations, so. . .you can go anyplace you want and pick up a bike and ride to the next location. This is a great start for us to have a program like this in the neighborhoods of our city.”<\/p>\n

Before the bikers rolled out, Menino qualified his final words as some of the most important:<\/p>\n

\u201cWear a helmet.”<\/p>\n

For more information on how it works, visit www.thehubway.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Photos: Signe Brewster
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 29, 2011– The horn sounded and 200 bikes poured into the streets of Boston, marking the opening of the first bike-sharing program of Massachusetts and a step toward the mayor\u2019s dream of establishing the city as a world-class cycling destination. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino presided over the New Balance Hubway bike-share opening ceremony in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":23020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[331,271],"tags":[665,381,293,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-23013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-massachussetts","8":"category-news","9":"tag-bike-sharing","10":"tag-biking","11":"tag-budget-friendly","12":"tag-green-travel"},"acf":[],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":23020,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/5987866886_ca76c357eb-300x176.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}