Bike Share Gets 3M In Federal Funds, Will Begin In Spring 2011
Written by Boston Biker on Jul 09The Boston Globe is reporting today that the feds coughed up a sizable chunk of money to get the bike share program up and running here in Boston!
The federal government awarded $3 million yesterday to Boston’s planned bike sharing program, giving the city and its partners seed money to purchase the stations and bicycles needed to launch next spring.
The federal award, coupled with $2 million in previously pledged local sponsorships and grants, is enough to purchase roughly 500 bicycles and at least 50 rental stations, said Nicole Freedman, who runs Boston Bikes, the program that Mayor Thomas M. Menino created to make Boston more bike-friendly.
“This takes us over one of the main hurdles with bike share, which is having enough funding to have a launch size that we’re confident will succeed,’’ said Freedman, an Olympic cyclist. Too few bikes and rental stations could doom the program to irrelevancy, she said, like an “MBTA with two stops.’’(via)
I had known for a while that the bike program was having problems (it had missed several deadlines) and was unable to really talk about it, but this is great news. I am disappointed it took so long, but really happy that is is happening.
All to often people complain strongly about the pace of change. They get so entrenched in bitching that they forget to pull their head up once and a while and actually see what is going on. Three years ago Boston was a car choked shit hole that had been rated the worst city in america to ride your bike in (more than once!).
In the last three years we have gone from no bike lanes, to 35 miles of bike lanes, added 750 bike racks, extended bike paths (Neponsett river green way), repaved the melnia cass and southwest corridor bike paths, created Bostons first bike boxes, first left hand bike lanes, all this in two years. A bevy of neighborhood bike groups have sprung up (many of them hosted on this site, thanks guys for choosing Bostonbiker.org!). And soon there will be a bike share.
The downward ark has at least been bent to a horizontal line, and I am confident that in the next few years if this trend continues the line will go up, and Boston will be well on its way toward being a world class biking city.
Every morning I ride in I see more and more cyclists on Boston’s streets. More and more of them are choosing to follow the law, more and more of them are women/children/elderly (all typically demographics that only start riding once a certain feeling of safety is met). I am confident that the bike share program will only push all this along faster.
Hurray bike share, and hurray federal government for putting its money where its mouth is.
What do all of you think? Is Boston really on a path to greatness, or am I full of hot air? Let me know in the comments.
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By Charlie
on Jul 9, 2010 | Reply
I definitely think we are well on our way. The number of cyclists I’ve seen out on my daily commute in Boston has been amazing. In the afternoon, there is often a line of cyclists all down Cambridge Street and across the Longfellow Bridge. And many if not most of them are obeying traffic signals, which is great to see.
By William Furr
on Jul 9, 2010 | Reply
That’s great news, and Boston has definitely been, if not a welcoming, at least possible to bike in, unlike other places I’ve lived.
The only part I’d question is the “following the law” bit. As the weather has warmed up and more folks have biked, I’ve seen a smaller percentage follow the bike laws. I start trying to wrap my mind around education and outreach to teach people how to bike safely, but there’s so many people it’s impossible to convince to go to a bike safety class. It’s a hard problem with no good solutions.
By Paul
on Jul 9, 2010 | Reply
There’s an apostrophe (‘) at the end of the “via” link above that breaks it. Remove that and it’ll work.
By Marianna
on Jul 9, 2010 | Reply
William, obviously this is based on personal experience, but I mentioned to BB the other day that I had seen more people stopping at red lights. True, it might be a smaller percentage of an increased ridership, but two months ago, I could sit at an outdoor cafe for an hour and not see a single bike stop at the light unless they had to due to traffic. On Wednesday I was in front of a restaurant on Comm Ave by BU and in 15 minutes, almost every biker stopped at the light. They were lined up 3 deep at one point, waiting for the light to change.
By Roland
on Jul 9, 2010 | Reply
I realized after reading the article, if they are thinking of it as a link between T stations, wouldn’t it be great if you could use your Charlie Card with it. That probably breaks the business model and is asking for too much bureaucracy, but wouldn’t it be nice anyway. The days I take the T are usually the days I didn’t ride my bike into town.
By J
on Jul 9, 2010 | Reply
Roland, no, you can’t use your charlie card because they need a credit card which holds you accountable if you steal a bike.
By Mike
on Jul 9, 2010 | Reply
This is pretty cool news… and I’d just like to thank all the taxpayers out there helping to make it happen. Even the folks in the metal boxes. =)
By Jonathan
on Jul 10, 2010 | Reply
As much as I want to be excited about this, I can only react with disappointment. As I noted at the end of May (http://rollinginboston.bostonbiker.org/2010/05/28/wheres-the-bike-share/) it’s been pretty obvious that the bike share program is getting off to a rough start. I’ve been willing to give Nicole and the rest of the Boston Bikes people (including I guess Mumbles) the benefit of the doubt that there was a good reason for the delay. Their inclination to hold off on starting the program until it can be launched with an adequate number of bikes is a good one, but 500 bikes is not even remotely close to enough.
I spent last July in Paris and used Velib on a daily basis, and I have reports of my experience on my blog. At every station, at least 10-20% of the bikes were not functioning due to flat tires (which are not user repairable as it takes a special tool to remove the wheels in order to deter theft), wonky drive-trains or any of the other myriad number of things that can happen to a bicycle. Assuming the same conditions here, that would leave 400-450 bikes in circulation at any given time.
According to Wikipedia, Paris covers an area of around 41 sq. miles, with a population of ~2.2 million. Boston on the other hand, covers a similar geographical footprint (48 sq. miles) but contains a much smaller population (~600,000). If Boston were to implement a program with a similar bikes/population ratio, that would imply ~5,000 bikes here. The proposed bike share is an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE off. The geographical similarities however, remain. Paris has 750 stations. Boston is proposing 50. Again an order of magnitude difference. I noticed that the real benefit of the Velib system was the ability to return a bike nearly anywhere in the city, and that will be plainly impossible with the current proposal.
If this is going to be a system intended primarily for tourists, with bikes primarily located downtown, then Nicole needs to just state that. But don’t try to say that we’re going to have a city-wide system; it’s just not feasible unless a complete commitment is made.
If this is going to be tied to MBTA subway stops (not a bad starting point) then there are very few bike stations left for areas that are not at a subway stop (I’m thinking large swaths of Dorchester, Roxbury, JP, Roslindale, etc).
In summary, I completely support the effort to bring bike-share to Boston, but it is another case of Boston half-assing an infrastructure project that will ultimately leave many people disappointed and left out.
By John_in_NH
on Jul 12, 2010 | Reply
@ Jonathan. Paris didn’t grow up all at once, it took a number of years for the system to be where it is. Bixi is also not Paris, it has learned from the problems there and improved, for example with a chain tensioner built right in as that was noted as a major problem in Paris(bixi is internal 3 or 5 spd hubs). While using Bixi in Montreal last fall, I noticed no bicycles with flats and only one station out of order due to it being in the shade of a building and not getting the needed solar to charge the off-grid batteries, and one bike with a wonky basket.
Also in Paris the poorer youths in the suburbs who feel that they get nothing while the tourists in the center get everything had a hand and still do in many of the problems there involving vandalism. That is hoped to be solved somewhat as the system expands into these areas soon.
in regards to Charlie card. I imagine they could make an option on the machine of getting a bike pass that would be good on the T and buses. like a Charlie ticket… but that creates a lot of extra paper waste I suppose…
they could still integrate buying day passes with the T machines though.
By DotDeb
on Jul 12, 2010 | Reply
Jonathan – glad to see I am not the only one who is not thrilled about the resources going into bike share. I wish that increasing bike paths was getting the attention and funding instead. Despite recent improvements, many people are still going to be reluctant to ride on the road, regardless of bike availability, door-zone bike lanes and other efforts that don’t do anything for people who don’t want to “share the road” with cars. Also, bike paths seem like a better investment in the long run. They don’t disappear like stripes of paint, or programs that may go bust.
By Pierce
on Jul 12, 2010 | Reply
some of us not only stop at red lights, but ding our little bells and call out a dismayed and faux-surprised “red light!” to scofflaws, whether on bike or in a car…..
By vjulie
on Jul 13, 2010 | Reply
This is great news! In Boston, many people don’t commute by bicycle because the lack of resources (e.g. bike paths and stations). In the long run, Boston will become a better place to live because there will be less pollution with the decrease of cars and public transit. Also more Bostonians will develop a healthier lifestyle because they will be engaging in more exercise. Not only will bicycle commuters save money on their commute but on top of it they can save up to $20/month in bicycle vouchers through pre-tax commuter benefits! Check it out at http://www.commuternation.com/bos!