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East Boston getting Hubway bike stations this year
By adamg on Tue, 06/14/2016 - 2:08pm
The Boston Transportation Department announced today that Hubway will be installing 10 kiosks in East Boston for renting its bicycles.
The department will hold a planning session at 6:30 p.m. on June 30 at the East Boston BPL branch to help figure out exactly where to place the stations.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
I think this is great news;
I think this is great news; East Boston can be its own node. If we adhered to the 5 min walk rule between present bikeshare stations, then we'd never make it up there. Would be cool to see this continue onto Revere due to the presence of the beach.
How do Eastie/Revere/Winthrop posters feel about this?
I can see this as being more
I can see this as being even more useful for going to Winthrop Beach, since Winthrop uses that Paul Revere bus out of Orient Heights that still doesn't read charlie cards. I'm hoping that will change once the T rolls-out the new fareboxes over the next couple years, that are supposed to be a fraction of the cost of the current ones, and maybe why the outsourced bus lines didn't implement them before.
No more beach
Winthrop doesn't really have a beach any more. DCR covered it with rocks to protect local houses from storm waves. The balance is roped off for nesting birds.
But you can still bike around Deer Island; they haven't screwed that up.
Winthrop isn't on the T
The Paul Revere buses are because Winthrop isn't on the T. Winthrop runs its own system. The MBTA rolling out new fare boxes on its buses won't impact Winthrop one way or the other -- they'll still have their asinine one-off system because, well, for no good reason anyway.
I'm not against it. The only
I'm not against it. The only bikes I usually see around here are stupid teenagers behaving badly. We have some nice paths and have been painting proper bike lanes lately, and it'd be nice to see some people using them to get around, instead of weaving the wrong way headlong into traffic in the dark to impress their little bros.
Well-behaved bicyclists are always welcome. And I agree that linking up to Revere would be a big win, especially for people who can't justify storage space for bikes in a small apartment but might like to get out for a weekend ride once in a while.
How much does it cost to rent
How much does it cost to rent for a day, and does the machine take cash.
$6 for a day and
$6 for a day and unfortunately, none of the machines take cash. CC/Debit/pre-paid cards only.
https://www.thehubway.com/pricing
Just to be clear...
I think the $6 is for a one day membership, but individual trips need to be less than 30 minutes to avoid extra charges. This isn't really a rental, but more like a public transit ride.
Yes, you are correct in that
Yes, you are correct in that each trip needs to be 30 mins or less.
East Boston is not yet Yuppie
East Boston is not yet Yuppie enough for hub way bicycles, lol, We're not Cambridge enough for bicycles , Volvo's, or yard sales.
Just give Eastie much more time for these things to come into fruition.
Great! My goal is to be the first person to ride a Hubway bike
through the Callahan Tunnel.
It's an arrest-able offense
Go for it -- but know that cyclists are prohibited on limited access highways, and while I think you'd almost certainly survive if you make it all the way through, my bet is that you'd get picked up by a statie before you made it all the way through.
Not an arrestable offense - $35 fine
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter85/Sect...
...
They didn't need to open Hubway in East Boston in order to do that. Hubway's been in the North End for a while. The Sumner, on the other hand...
Not enough bikes on hubway
They have been spreading them out but there's a shortage in the city.
It's a great system but it's getting strained by expansion. Apparently the cities won't let them move bikes after 10 pm.
If you're renting the Hubway in East Boston
you'd be going through the Sumner Tunnel. But yes, you could be dropping off in Eastie. Oh wait, we can't leave out Ted. It would be quicker than the SL1.
Not necessarily. The bikes
Not necessarily. The bikes could be for residents of Eastie who want to make quick trips around the neighborhood/visit the park or beach.
Yeah, I assume the idea is
Yeah, I assume the idea is they're for people who want to toodle around Eastie.
I commute in to Eastie on the Blue Line, and I'm thinking it might be more convenient to get from Maverick to my job by Hubway than waiting for a bus. It's a 10 minute walk, but sometimes a 15 minute wait for a bus then insane traffic on Meridian, and now that the MBTA's removed two of my stops, the bus only gets me 75% of the way there. I could probably bike it in three minutes; the question is how close to my job (near Central Square) they'd put the Hubway station.
Library
Another meeting at a library.....The attendees should bring their children, the kids will use the book section since adults don't use libraries to read anymore.. Hardy Boys are a good read for young lads..
locations
Where should they go?
- Maverick Square
- Airport Station
- Wood Island / Day Square
- Orient Heights
- Constitution Beach (opposite side from Orient Heights)
- Central Square
- Jeffries Point (or the shipyard)
- Eagle Hill
Where else? This seems a little spread out, but those are the major points I can think of. To get a good fill you'd need more than 10 stations
Suffolk Downs
That's actually the only place I predict they'd get much use. People can zip over to Target or the other shops.
I was thinking the same thing...
It doesn't seem too practical. There's not really any particular place to ride a bike to/from in East Boston. The tiny handful of bikes I've ever seen around here are always people riding very slow on the sidewalk. And anyone riding a bike down Saratoga, Bennington or Meridian Street (something I have never seen in all my years here) will take their life in their hands. I just don't think the whole idea is workable.
OTOH
I used to bike in Eastie. It was good to go from the train station to the supermarket (either one).
Bennington is ripe for protected cycletracks. It has so much extra width with the median and the not-busy sidewalks. Or, Saratoga could be made into a slow shared space. The MassPort cycletrack is basically useless, it doesn't connect anywhere along its route. Not even at short street.