Take a look at all the milestones, records, celebrations, and essential trips from the 10th year of public bike share in Metro Boston.
Bluebikes was one of the earliest bike share systems in the US. Originally named “Hubway”, Boston’s public bike share system celebrated 10 years of sustainable, affordable, and fun transportation in 2021. This historic milestone was marked with a celebratory event in Copley Square, the site of one of the earliest Bluebikes stations. Boston’s first female mayor, and first mayor of color, Kim Janey gave remarks, alongside stakeholders from the 4 original municipal owners of the Bluebikes system including, Peter Dempsey, Anthony DePasquale, and Joe Cutatone. Remarks celebrated the storied history of the Bluebikes system, and the event culminated with the unveiling of the 10th Birthday Unicorn Bike.
Where to start? After reduced ridership in 2020, Bluebikes riders shattered multiple records in 2021, including:
Most trips in a single day: 18,304 (a record that was broken over and over)
Most trips in a week: 108,880 (week of Sept. 13th)
Most trips in a month: 435,008 (September)
Most trips in a year: 2,924,660 (and counting! Will we hit 3 million trips in a year?)
Daily ride records were set over and over in September
Bluebikes riders also surpassed several major ride milestones including 13 million trips, 14 million trips, and a whopping 15 MILLION TRIPS since launching in 2011
Bluebikes Income Eligible program also set several records including most monthly members, most trips per member, and the highest overall enrollment i the program in 3 years.
Want to learn more about Bluebikes ridership? Bluebikes data is always kept up to date on our System Data page.
The City of Boston was able to apply for and receive a grant from the Better Bikeshare Partnership to support essential workers. This grant was used to supply 1500 free memberships to the restaurant, retail, grocery, and pharmacy sectors. These essential workers took over 34,000 trips, totaling close to 100,000 miles. This program will continue into 2022 and eligible workers can apply at the City of Boston website.
The pandemic also realigned priorities around service. Sanitization was made a priority in the early days of the pandemic, and valet service was added at hospitals and at mass vaccination sites, courtesy of Blue Cross Blue Shield. In addition to valet service, BSBS provided free rides to both vaccination appointments for 2174 riders.
In 2021, both voting access and mental health became household issues. Blue Cross Blue Shield supported both of these fronts with free ride days on Election Day via the Bike to Vote campaign, and on World Mental Health Day. Over 400 riders used Bluebikes to cast their vote, removing the potential barrier of transportation access to electoral participation. On World Mental Health Day, over 500 riders took a much deserved mental break with Bluebikes, courtesy of Blue Cross Blue Shield
This year also saw significant expansion of the Bluebikes system coverage area. Including the communities of Hyde Park and Mattapan. This expansion realized the promise of full municipal coverage of the City of Boston, and was featured in the Better Bike Share blog.
Hyde Park Launched with new stations and a new unicorn bike designed by Artists for Humanity