Local News

Boston residents who have not had a Bluebikes membership in the last three years can get a deep discount through a new pilot program.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced a new pilot program Thursday that will enable residents to access Bluebikes for less than half the cost of a regular annual membership.

The Boston Bike Pass is available for Boston residents who have not had a Bluebikes membership in the last three years. They are now eligible for a $60 annual membership, as opposed to the regular membership that costs $129 a year. In addition, the city is making annual membership available for $5 to low income residents. More information on eligibility can be found on the city’s website. 

Speaking in front of City Hall, flanked by visiting mayors from cities around the country, Wu referenced last year’s Orange Line shutdown as an impetus for this new program. During that 30-day closure Bluebikes were available free of charge. The record for single day Bluebike usage was broken nine different times during that month, Wu said. 

“When the financial barriers come down, the interest is there, the energy is there, and we want to continue making that possible throughout the year, not just as mitigation to very difficult transportation situations,” she said. 

Wu also spoke about the role of the city as a large employer, and how she wants to demonstrate to other employers the viability of transportation-based employee benefits. She said access to bikeshare programs for city workers will expand in the future. 

State Sen. Will Brownsberger highlighted the efforts of the Wu administration to improve bike infrastructure throughout the city. 

“Every single block of every single bikeway is a fight. There’s competing interests: parking, what businesses want, what residents need, through traffic for buses, through traffic for vehicles,” he said. “The mayor is taking that challenge on and block by block building the network of bikeways that will make this city the bike capital of the world.”

Wu also spoke about the upcoming closure of the Red Line. Shuttle buses will replace Red Line service from the JFK/UMass Station through the Ashmont and Mattapan stations beginning Saturday and stretching until Oct. 29. The MBTA has said these tracks are some of the oldest in its subway system, and the closure will prove critical in repairing the tracks and eliminating slow zones. 

City workers are installing extra Bluebikes docks around the affected Red Line stops, Wu said. A limited number of free Bluebikes passes will be available during the shutdown. More information is expected to be released Friday. The city is also improving bike lanes and adding signage around the affected routes to increase safety for new riders. It will be free to ride the Commuter Rail Fairmount Line between all Zone 1A stations during the closure. 

“The red line has been a particularly difficult part of the commuting experience and it’s gotten worse over the last several years, and certainly the last several months,” Wu said. “So we’re extremely hopeful that the shutdown will result in significant improvements in the rider experience. It’s necessary, we need that to happen.”