By Cary Shuman
The City of Boston is hoping to install 100 new Bluebikes stations in every neighborhood of Boston, including Charlestown, where 6-8 sites will be added to the 12 sites that currently exist.
Kim Foltz, director of Boston Bikes, and Luisa Gag, Bike Share planner, made a presentation about the proposed Bluebike stations at an Open House event Tuesday at the BCYF Charlestown.
“The goals [for the meeting] are to provide a little bit of information about the needs for this expansion and share the potential sites that we have identified in the neighborhoods [of Charlestown, East Boston, South Boston, and South Boston Waterfront].”
Bluebikes has become an immensely popular mode of transportation throughout the City of Boston. Foltz said there are currently more that 500 stations system-wide throughout the Bluebikes network. There are millions of bike trips each year.
Foltz said residents can become members of Bluebikes and that Mayor Michelle has launched the Boston Bikes Pass initiative “to ensure that there is a discounted membership option for residents of Boston.”
Gag told the gathering that the city is accepting comments about potential sites in Charlestown, “and we’re going to consider all the comments, calls, and emails that we get on the survey and we will use those to help narrow down our list of sites and prioritize which sites we want to install.”
Foltz said the long-term goal in the transportation plan is to ensure that every household in Boston is within a 10-minute walk of Bike Share.
Peter Jaffe, a Charlestown resident and a regular rider on Bluebikes, said he would like to see a new station installed near the intersection of Chelsea Street and Constitution Road.
Jaffe said he uses Bluebikes to get to his place of employment in Cambridge, to the grocery store, and on leisure rides.
“We’re a big bike family,” said Jaffe. “Both children bike to school every day. My oldest son would bike to school and soccer practice and then bike home.”
The meeting was exceptionally well orchestrated, with large color photos of neighborhoods available for people to view and then suggest as potential sites for the new Bluebike stations.
“We pulled some of these sites from PLAN: Charlestown,” said Luisa Gag, a graduate of Boston Latin School and the University of Rochester. “Even though I have my own bike, I primarily use Bluebikes.”