User:Fencing1228/Bluebikes

Launch of system [Initial Launch]
[all previous paragraphs]

As of 2017, Boston was ranked as the city with the fifth largest bike sharing system in the United States, after New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Minneapolis. The rankings are determined by the number of hubs or stations. At that time, Boston had 184 stations.

As Bluebikes [Re-Branding to Bluebikes]
On March 7, 2018, Hubway announced a six-year partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, which included a system-wide rebranding as Bluebikes, an expansion of 3,000 total bikes, and an addition of over 100 new stations by the end of 2019. Prior to this partnership, the Boston portion of the system had been sponsored by Boston-based athletic company New Balance. The new sponsorship with Blue Cross covers all four municipalities. The name change took effect on May 9, 2018, with the release of new and re-branded bicycles.

On June 4, 2019, Bluebikes set a single-day ridership record with users taking 10,035 trips, the first time the ride-share has ever exceeded the 10,000-rider mark for a single day. The system continued to surpass its ridership records throughout summer 2019, hitting 13,642 trips in a single day in September. On September 19, 2019 Bluebikes passed 10 million total rides. Two years later on September 11th, 2021, Bluebikes hit its highest single day record with over 18,000 rides.

In 2020, Bluebikes expanded to Newton, Revere, Chelsea, Arlington, and Watertown adding over 30 new stations to the system. The following year in June, Bluebikes was launched in Salem with seven stations, bringing the system's span to 10 municipalities. Bluebikes continued to expand in 2021, with projects underway in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park.

[Discounts and the] Income Eligible Program
In the spring of 2018, as Motivate worked towards expanding the bike share program, attention was also focused on increasing membership opportunities for folks who may not have been able to pay the full price. Bluebikes offered an expanded Income-Eligible Program that offers membership rates of $5 per month or $50 per year, which are discounted from the standard prices of $25 per month or $109 per year (as of 2021). Residents can qualify for these discounted rates via their participation in any one of eleven different assistance programs, including EBT cards, Pell Grants, MassHealth, and Public housing initiatives. Additionally, the Bluebikes program offers a subsidized yearly membership fee of $5 for guests or clients of transitional housing options and homeless shelters located within the city of Boston. Those who qualify for these discounted rates have access to unlimited 60 minute trips — an increase from the standard 45 minute rides — providing additional incentives in order to increase membership among a subset of the population that previously may not have had access.

Marty Walsh has said that these changes to the Bluebikes initiative are in line with the goals of Boston’s Go Boston 2030 transportation plan, which focuses on promoting transportation equity. Jay Walder, who was the CEO and President of Motivate in the spring of 2018, stated that the Income-Eligible Program would make Bluebikes accessible for Bostonians regardless of income, and that these efforts to provide access should serve as a model for sustainable transport initiatives across the country.

Starting on October 5th, 2019, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts began to sponsor $1 single rides on weekends until the end of 2019 to help combat transportation challenges arising from MBTA shutdowns. Blue Cross has also donated $10,000 to the Bluebikes Income-Eligibility Program to increase affordability. These initiatives have helped to establish Bluebikes as an affordable, healthy, and consistent alternative to more traditional public transportation options in Boston.

Bluebikes provided free trips with one-time use codes to travel to polling places in 2020 and COVID-19 vaccination sites in 2021. On each Monday of August 2021, Bluebikes offered complimentary Adventure Passes as a part of their celebration for National Wellness Month. The campaign, titled "Mindful Mondays", was sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Various companies and colleges, including Boston University, Emerson College, Harvard University, and Tufts University, have enrolled in the Bluebikes Corporate Partner Program. This allows individuals of those organizations to enroll in a Bluebikes membership at a discounted rate, subsidized by their respective company.

Equipment
The system uses bicycles designed and manufactured by Montreal-based PBSC. The majority of docking stations are also supplied by PBSC while the newest docking stations are designed and manufactured by 8D Technologies. The platform behind the bike share system is created by 8D Technologies, who also supply the server technology for BIXI Montréal, Citi Bike in New York City, Santander Cycles in London, Capital Bikeshare in Washington DC, and others.

Each Bluebike comes with a basket, adjustable seat, and kickstand. For safety during night-time riding, they have self-powered lights at the front and back of the bike. On the left handlebar, Bluebikes are equipped with a bell, and the right handlebar has a 3-gear shifter.

Bluebikes renters may download the app on their Android or iOS device. The app was developed in 2017 and is free to download. The app provides information on the status (e.g., current trip length) of the rental, but it is not required in order to rent a Bluebike. On the app's map, docks appear as green when there are a sufficient number of bikes at the station. Conversely, they appear as red when there are little to none available.

To unlock a bike, a person must first purchase a pass using a credit or debit card at the solar-powered station kiosk or on the Bluebikes app. A five digit numeric code will be given. For users with monthly or yearly plans, a physical bike key can be requested. When a Bluebikes user inserts their key or enters the code into a keypad next to the bike, the bike detaches itself from the dock. As a renter finishes their trip, they push the bike into the dock and hold it until the light next to the dock turns green to confirm a successful lock. In the case that a Bluebike is not returned to a dock within 24 hours, the renter may be charged a lost bike fee of $1,200.

[picture of keypad]

Types of Passes
A trip begins when a renter removes a bike from a dock, and it ends when the renter returns the bike to the dock. With Monthly and Annual Memberships, bikers are allowed to take an unlimited number of trips per day, with each one lasting less than 45 minutes. The Bluebikes app tracks the time and length of each trip taken. If a renter exceeds the time limit of their pass, Bluebikes bills the renter $2.50 for each additional 30 minutes.

Bike Angels Rewards Program
Similar to the bike sharing systems of New York City and Washington D.C., Bluebikes also offers a rewards system to incentivize renters to move bikes to certain docks. This is set up to alleviate the company's amount of transportation work. A renter receives points when they bring a bike to a sparsely populated dock or take a bike out of a full dock. The points are updated every fifteen minutes and vary depending on the severity of excess supply or demand. Rewards include free adventure passes for friends, membership extensions, and gift cards.

Criticism
Bluebikes renters have complained on Tripadvisor, Reddit , Yelp , and various other sites that they have found the service to be unsatisfactory. Customers have criticized Bluebikes for equipment shortcomings - unsuccessful bike docks, old stations and heavy bikes, and adjustable seats falling mid-ride. The technology is reported to occasionally fail, with invalid codes and incorrect charges made to bank accounts. Regarding the physical accessibility, some users are unhappy with their experience of bikes being unavailable at certain stations, and conversely, being unable to find an available dock in order to return the bike.