Federal Funds Will Let Bluebikes System Add Electrified Stations For E-Bikes

9:43 AM EDT on October 22, 2024

Bikes at a bikesharing dock under the shade of a tree, with a tent visible in the background. — A bluebikes dock in Day Square, with the city’s temporary plaza visible beyond.

Since they first came on the scene last December, the new pedal-assist electric Bluebikes have been extremely popular.

E-bikes comprise about 15 percent of the total Bluebikes fleet, but in the winter of 2024, they accounted for roughly one-third of all Bluebikes trips.

But existing Bluebikes stations can't recharge bikes, so when a battery is running low, a technician has to go swap it out with a fully-charged battery by hand.

"They're very popular, but without the ability to charge e-bikes at stations, it's a tremendous staffing expense," explained Eric Bourassa of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC).

Last week, MAPC learned that it had won $21.6 million in federal funding from a new competitive grant program for traffic congestion relief efforts in major cities.

To ameliorate the challenge of charging, and support increased ridership in the Bluebikes system, MAPC will use about $10 million of its newly-received grant funding to install 32 electrified Bluebikes docks in the core of the Bluebikes network, in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville.

A map of the Bluebikes service area in greater Boston showing Bluebikes stations as pale blue dots. A cluster of darker blue dots in the core of the region – in Cambridge and Somerville, and the Back Bay and downtown neighborhoods of Boston – indicate the proposed locations of new electric docks for recharging e-bikes. — A map illustrating the proposed locations for new electrified Bluebikes docks, which would be capable of recharging the new pedal-assist electric Bluebikes. Courtesy of MAPC.

The funding will also install 32 non-electric infill stations to provide better coverage elsewhere in the suburban parts of the system, in cities like Watertown, Newton, Chelsea, and Malden (exact locations are yet to be determined).

The grant will also finance an expansion of the Bluebikes fleet, with 90 new e-bikes plus 290 new non-electric pedal bikes.

Read MAPC's Congestion Relief Program grant application here.