Bike-Share Coming to Boston, $1.5 M in Sponsorships Already Secured

Consistently hailed as one of the least bike-friendly cities in the country, Boston officials are out to change its reputation. The Boston Globe writes "that Hubway, will open in July with 600 bicycles and 61 stations in the city.... About a dozen corporate, hospital, and university sponsors have contributed $1.5 million, led by $600,000 from New Balance."

Bike sharing programs have been widely adopted throughout Europe, and cities like Washington, Montreal, Denver, Minneapolis and Toronto have all recently launched similar bike-share programs, largely modeled after Paris' Velib. The bicycle system in Paris is one of the largest public bike programs in the world with more than 20,000 bikes and is sponsored by outdoor advertising giant, JCDecaux. Washington's Capital Bikeshare is currently the largest system in the United States with 1,100 bikes.

In a few years, Boston officials say they hope to reach as many as 5,000 bikes at more than 300 kiosks around the city.

photo credit #newstag