Holy Hubway: Hubway Set To Break A Million Trips

Hubway had a good year last year, with half a million trips before shutting down for the winter.

They reopened the service April 2, and as of May 7th had already logged 85,000 trips. If they keep up this pace the system should hit 1 million plus trips this year. See the email they sent me below.

We’ve made it! Another winter is under our collective belts and the miles are starting to pile up on the Hubway fleet. Did you know that since we reopened the system on April 2, riders have logged more than 85,000 trips? That’s right, Hubway is #RealTransportation.

Hubway is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with Bicycle Benefits, your single source for discounts at local businesses throughout metro-Boston and beyond, available to you simply by riding your bike and wearing a helmet. Beginning May 1, every Hubway member will receive a Bicycle Benefits sticker in their new member packet! Affix the sticker to your helmet and you’re ready to enjoy exclusive savings at great local businesses! Already a Hubway member? Follow Hubway on Facebook and Twitter to learn when we’ll be out and about around town. Show us your Hubway key fob and your helmet, and we’ll hook you up with your own sticker! Visit http://www.thehubway.com/bicycle-benefits for a list of participating businesses and to learn more about this great program.

And don’t forget that May is National Bike Month and here in Massachusetts, May 11th-19th is Bay State Bike Week. There are dozens of great events to choose from so get on a bike and ride!

85,000 trips during April (an admittedly cold miserable month) rivals some of the busiest months the system had last year, one can assume that once the weather is really nice the trip counter is going to smoke it goes up so fast.

One can hope that the success of the program will allow them to expand the system into Dorchester, and other under-served neighborhoods. These areas could really benefit from such a reliable and cheap form of transportation.

I personally have seen more Hubway riders in the last couple weeks than ever before, the streets are thick with them during commute times, and on the weekends. I love it, long live Hubway!

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Italian Bicycle Tire Brand, Vittoria Industries, Opens Boston Office

Got this in the email today.  Vittoria makes great product, and has been very supportive of local builders.  Check out their press release below.  Nice to see the growth in cycling bringing industry (and jobs) to the area.  I might be wrong but I think they might be moving in right down the street from Geekhouse bikes/HQ boston in the “innovation district.”  Would love to see that area become a bike business hub.

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On Friday, April 12^th 2013, the Italian tire manufacturer, Vittoria Industries, will celebrate the opening of their new Boston office

Boston, MA – Located in the heart of the Seaport district, Vittoria is excited to open its doors and embrace the cycling culture that is so deeply rooted here in Boston.

“The combination of a skilled labor force, strong outdoor enthusiast base, and geographical location made Boston an easy choice,” said Vittoria Industries North America President, EJ Riordan. “We are looking forward to growing with the local cycling scene, while continuing to provide the very best product available.”

Vittoria Industries Ltd. leads a global operation, with its origins and Global Headquarters in Madone, Italy. Since 1953 Vittoria Industries Ltd. has built highly reputable partnerships within in the cycling industry and created a unique brand image. Today, Vittoria Industries is the world’s leading manufacturer of bicycle tires with an annual production of more than 7 million tires and 900,000 high performance tubulars and cotton tires. Its research & development center develops the best racing tires for all levels.

The group owns two brands; Vittoria for road tires and GEAX for mountain bike.  Additionally it trades third party brands such as Northwave, 3T and Selle Italia.

Our mission and vision:

“We believe that challenging yourself and achieving the next level in sports is the most gratifying, great feeling there is. It is our mission to help you improve your cycling performance and achieve your next level by producing the best and fastest bicycle tires in the world. We have been doing so for the past 60 years.”

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Spam User Removal, Forum Bye Bye

Seems over the last couple days, roughly 40,000 spam users from all over the world have attacked the database. As such I am aggressively cleaning out the user table…

This shouldn’t mean anything to you, unless of course I crush you under my iron heal of deletion by accident.

If you find yourself unable to log into your blog, contact me, and we will get it sorted out.

You will also notice the forum is gone, it was fun while it lasted but never really caught on. Maybe at some point it will come back, but for now its gone baby gone.

Thanks
BB

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New Bike Shop Opening In Quincy

Got the following in the email, if you cycling in those parts look for this new shop.

Boston Bike Guy will have a grand opening Feb. 1st of a new bike shop in
Quincy, Ma.
1450 Hancock Street
about 2 blocks from redline station.
Cheapest Bicycle repair rates around and used bikes for sale and new bikes
to come later, parts and accesories.

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Updates

Made a whole lot of updates to the back end software today, if you blog here you will notice differences, hopefully you like em!

As always let me know if things are not working correctly.

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Car Horn For Your Bicycle

Interesting…very interesting…

More here.

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H&M Making Clothing For Bikers

Woo! Does this mean we are entering the mainstream? I hope so, more bike clothing options the better.

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Cyclists And Pedestrians Better For Business Than Drivers

People who cycle or walk spend less per visit, but visit many more times per month at local business. If you own a local business, put some bike racks out front, and watch your sales go up!  (read the entire article here)

Their findings are neatly summarized in these three graphs. This first one shows how much consumers spent on average per trip, by transportation mode:

Here, people estimated how many trips they took per month:

And this is the total estimate of consumer spending per month:

Until now there hasn’t been much empirical evidence to allay such concerns. Clifton and several colleagues have attempted to fill that research gap in a project for the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium (read a PDF of the draft report here). They surveyed 1,884 people walking out of area convenience stores, restaurants and bars, and another 19,653 who’d just done their supermarket shopping. Some of the results are unsurprising: Drivers still make up a plurality of customers to all of these businesses. And, with greater trunk capacity, they far outspend people who travel to the grocery store by foot, bike or transit.

But for all of the other business types examined, bikers actually out-consumed drivers over the course of a month. True, they often spent less per visit. But cyclists and pedestrians in particular made more frequent trips (by their own estimation) to these restaurants, bars and convenience stores, and those receipts added up. This finding is logical: It’s a lot easier to make an impulse pizza stop if you’re passing by an aromatic restaurant on foot or bike instead of in a passing car at 35 miles an hour. Such frequent visits are part of the walkable culture. Compare European communities – where it’s common to hit the bakery, butcher and fish market on the way home from work – to U.S. communities where the weekly drive to Walmart’s supermarket requires an hour of dedicated planning.

“It’s not just a phenomenon born of the need to carry things,” Clifton says. Walkable (and bikeable) communities by definition facilitate a more frequent interaction between patrons and businesses. This means these bikers and pedestrians are also more regular customers. “That also says something about marketing,” Clifton says, “about customer loyalty, about neighborhood-based businesses.”

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