This week, the City of Salem cut the ribbon on seven new Bluebikes docks around its city center, roughly doubling the number of bikesharing stations in the Witch City just in time for its busy Halloween tourism season.
The city leveraged funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) plus sponsorships from Blue Cross and Salem State University to fund the expansion, which will also bring about 44 additional bikes to Salem.
The new stations will expand Bluebikes coverage into neighborhoods north and west of the downtown area, and supplement existing docks in high-ridership locations like Salem State University and the MBTA regional rail stop.
The new stations are located at:
- Salem State University - North Campus
- Essex St. at Dalton Parkway
- Forest River Park
- Salem MBTA commuter rail station (platform level)
- Community Life Center
- Goodhue St. at Grove St.
- North St. at Liberty Hill Ave.
Salem debuted its first eight Bluebikes stations in 2021. Unlike previous Bluebikes expansions, which have grown concentrically outward from the system’s origins in the cities of Boston and Cambridge, Salem’s Bluebikes docks are all located about 12 miles away from the nearest stations in the core system, in Everett and Revere.
"Expanding access to Bluebikes in Salem helps further connect our city and make more neighborhoods and destinations reachable by bike," said Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll in a press release issued Wednesday.
In the same press release, Salem State University President John D. Keenan said that he was "particularly grateful for Mayor Driscoll's leadership in increasing the city's biking infrastructure, including connecting the bike path (the Salem-Marblehead Rail Trail) through our Harrington Campus right into downtown Salem."
Driscoll is also the Democratic nominee running to become the state's next Lieutenant Governor, after she won last week's primary election.
The Bluebikes system as a whole has been smashing daily ridership records on an almost-daily basis while the MBTA has suspended service on the Orange Line and parts of the Green Line for the past month.
