13 Percent of Hubway Rides Replace Cars

Boston’s popular three-season bicycle share system has done more than provide residents with a quick, cheap mode of transportation—it's taken a few cars off the road in the process.

Nicole Freedman, director of bicycle programs for the city of Boston, said 13 percent of the 675,000 rides taken in the first two years of the Hubway system are “car replacement” rides, according to survey data collected by the city.

In other words, those riders signaled that if not for their Hubway bike ride, they would be driving, Freedman said.

That amounts to 87,750 rides that were taken on a bicycle as opposed to in a car.

The Hubway system has been available to the public for about 240 days per year in its first two seasons, Freedman said. The system, which closes during winter months, opened in Boston July 20, 2011.

Charlestown offers two Hubway stations—one at Warren and Chelsea streets and one at Main and Austin streets—and a third station is coming soon, at the new Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital site in the Navy Yard.

The program is expected to reopen for riders early this spring, depending on the weather. Last year, stations began reopening in March, and the full system was back online by April 1, according to the Hubway website.