New Balance Hubway

I am tired of using this service.
I am a student at Harvard and stay on campus until 12 AM or later. So, I rely on this service to return home. However, it has happened to me many times that, although I had properly docked the bike on previous usage, Hubway blocked my key claiming that the bike was not returned.
Many times, I have had to walk home late at night or use a Über because either customer service is not available, or the agent tells me that they can’t help and I have to wait until the next day when a manager is available.
To make things worse, manager are themselves unhelpful. They assume that you have lost their bicycle and until one of their agent goes to the station, they won’t do anything to find out where the bike is and enable you to quickly regain access to the service.
On all cases, I will later find out that the bike was «manually docked» but the system did not register it as such. Hubway customer service always seem to be doing me a favor not to charge me after they realize that it was their fault that their system doesn’t work properly.
I am not even mentioning cases when stations are down or empty, or when they are full and you would have to find another one where to leave the bike.
too many bad experiences… not worth it.

Awful local-​government joke. First station no bikes. Second station doesn’t work. Third takes my money and then refuses to show me an access code. What a waste.

Disclaimer: I will start by saying that at first I thought the bike sharing between docking stations is a great concept and apparently my brother and many others agree and have good experiences with it. MAKE SURE YOU SEE A GREEN LIGHT SIGNAL AS YOU DOCK THE BIKE BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE STATION!!!
Today, however, I tried it for the first time because my brother encouraged me that it was worth the fee and let me tell you why I had the worst experience with the system ever!
First of all, because I am new, I only opted for the 3-​day pass and a single rental for $ 12. I tried to memorize the access code to unlock a bike, but had to try a couple times since I mixed up the sequence the first time, lol.
Then, as I was riding the bike, I couldn’t help but feel like it was too heavy and cumbersome and switching gears to make it easier to pedal is impossible! Keep in mind that I am only 128 lbs and 5’5″, so managing a bike of this size was not ideal. But I guess they need a universal size that is sturdy and safe for a majority of their customers…
Anyway, I didn’t have a helmet so I took a chance and tried riding it to the next station without a helmet or turn-​by-​turn directions. Also, the spotcycle app is not connected to Google Maps, so you are unable to hear directions if you are new to the city, as in my case.
I enjoyed pedaling up Beacon Hill and coasting down to the Boston Commons, but I had to stop and look up directions as well as watch traffic at every intersection since it was very busy that day.
Luckily, I arrived alive at the next station and docked the bike and left to go shopping. I did not know you had to wait to make sure the green light turned on to ensure the bike was locked and registered.
When I got back to the station, I found the same bike docked at the same station, but could not reaccess it when I put my card in or tried the same code I used at the first station. There was a lady there who told me I needed to get another code with my card and she seemed to be really happy with the service.
Long story short, I got frustrated with the system and was running late so I ended up walking back home to meet my brother. I told him the story and called up hubway who told me I had to go back to the station to relocate the bike and they gave me the bike ID#.
If somebody had been tampering with the station and tried every dock, I could’ve been $ 1200 in debt. Luckily, this was not the case. Yet I was still charged a $ 22 overage fee because there are only 30 minutes allotted between each station! Plus, the dock I initially tried was malfunctioning and would not lock. Wish I had known about the green light before using or leaving the station.
Really Hubway?!? Really SpotCycle?!? Thanks a lot for a great first experience!
P. S. — If you’re a new customer trying out this bike rideshare, plz make note of the headline at the top. Enjoy!

HUBway = taking the SUBway
Be prepared to NOT to ride a bike when you want to use Hubway!
Hubway is unreliable and their customer service could care less.
I have wasted a lot of time trying to purchase a day pass using the touch-​screen system at various Hubway bike stations. Each attempt was unsuccessful so I called Hubway’s customer service. Hubway has the very lowest level of customer service: they could care less.
Based on my interactions with Hubway’s customer service, I would not hesitate to contact my credit card company directly to dispute any over-​charges.

Stayed at a Back Bay hotel between Fenway and the Harbor area and used the Hubway to get around. Had a couple close calls with cars making right turns while I was crossing intersections. Bike experience and confidence is helpful. The good news is that there are so many bikes on the street that they have become part of the driving landscape and car drivers are less likely to not see you.
The price is cheap, bikes were well maintained and there were bike stations everywhere I wanted to go. Will definitely use Hubway next time I’m in Boston.

Simply put, I adore Hubway. It embodies everything that a bike share should offer:
1) the bikes are safe, sturdy, and well-​maintained. In the past 3 months, I have taken 95 trips on Hubway bikes and I have never once had an issue with a bike
2) the bikes are ever-​increasingly ubiquitous. They are well placed throughout Boston, Cambridge, Somerville. It would be great to see more in Dorchester and Roxbury.
3) Hubway does a good job trying to maintain bike and dock availability by recirculating bikes. There are times when docks are empty or full, but that’s in the nature of sharing pretty much anything. Sometimes you can’t have it when you want it.
4) Hubway customer service is super responsive, ²⁴⁄₇. I’ve called them with silly questions and they’ve always been kind and helpful.
5) the pricing structure is great to encourage frequent short trips and keeping the bikes available. Free for 30 minutes, then $ 1.50 for the next 30 minutes. You can always stop by any station, plug the bike in, and then take it again for longer trips.
6) the fact that the bikes are available for $ 5 per year to low-​income individuals is incredible.
7) SpotCycle and BosBikes are both terrific for real-​time data on bike and dock availability.
If you’re looking for an easy way to be active and healthy in the city, Hubway is your ticket.

Take $ 101 and customer service not knowing how long till it (the deposit) is returned, customer service at 2:00 sounds like they have slobber between their lip and pillow.
Great concept ruined by a shitty customer service experience. Pull your name off these bikes New Balance and quit extorting money. K-​Mart needs to be on these because this sucks.

Renting the bikes was fun, as every bike rental company is. The Hubway system is the worst bike rental service. They hold 101 $ on your account for seven days, and don’t tell you they are keeping your money for a whole week. When you’re a college student that is not the best thing to open your bank account to. When I called their customer service they were very rude and unaccommodating. They also charged me an additional 20 $ when they told me my membership would only be 6 $. So, unless you have 121 $ to spare, I suggest never renting or calling Hubway. Go to your local Bike Rental Shop.

Its a great concept, but the execution is very poor. They need to find a better way to ensure that there are enough bikes available during rush hours. I find myself walking from station-​to-​station, only to find that they have run out of bikes. Its been very frustrating. As of now, it is not a dependable mode of transport.

Good and comfortable bikes for rentals to go around Boston. Excellent activity if you are new in Boston or friends are visiting. Great way to tour the city. Bike around the Charles River is a unique experience. Make sure to cruise by the Esplanade! Rentals are affordable and there are many spots to pick up of drop off the bikes.

We tried to use the bikes as an alternative to walking from Charlestown to the North End. We rented the bikes near Constitution Marina and rode over to Atlantic Ave. When we got to Atlantic Ave there were no empty spaces in the rack to return the bikes. So we rode down to the Marriott Long Wharf to try to return them there. Again, no empty spaces. At this point we were going to be late for an event and didn’t have time to look for yet another bike rack even further away from where we were trying to go. We ended up riding BACK TO CHARLESTOWN so we could get the bikes returned within the 30 minute time limit. I’m still not sure we made it in 30 minutes but I guess I’ll find out if my credit card gets charged. Then we got in the car and drove back to the North End — because we were out of time to walk and still make a meeting we were trying to attend.
To recap, we paid $ 12 to rent 2 bikes, probably overtime fees, $ 15 to Park the car and were late for our event. A utterly futile, frustrating, and expensive experience.

As an avid biker who usually rides around the city on a touring cycle, I found the bikes perfect for what they are. They are damn slow, but that’s for the best, max speed has got to be around 18 mph, maybe less. I liked the internal hub, but ultimately only had use for the 3 3^rd speed.
So, whats the problem? They door a poor job of communicating pricing, if you use the bike for over 30 min. you start being charged steeply. I’m no dummy, and I certainly thought I was paying $ 6 for 24 hours of bike usage… not so. I biked to a friends house, hung out for a few hours, then biked home, and was charged $ 84… Now I’m sure that info is buried in TOS someplace, but its certainly not upfront and out there. It seems if you complain, they will offer to reimburse you 50%, but I saw screw-​em, and dispute the charge on the card you used, their practices are deceptive. I’m sure they have received numerous complaints by now, and have not made an effort to make it clear to customers how the pricing works.

When the only weaknesses of a service are an under-​developed infrastructure and the potential ignorance of users who believe they’re beyond the application of standard terms and conditions, well sir, you’ve got a pretty stellar thing going.
The Hubway, for the uninitiated, is a network of community bikes meant to be a feel-​good alternative to public transit. It is not, I repeat NOT, a bike rental for a day of joy riding. Just as you wouldn’t hop in a cab and take it around for grocery shopping, dinner and to catch a flick, you should not consider Hubway for long-​term use. It’s plastered on every bike, at every station and contained in your rental agreement. Complaining to the contrary is just silly.
In fact, the key to its success is the short-​term nature of use: 30-​minute rides mean a constant flux in inventory, which means greater availability to all. The current price structure is $ 6 for a day-​tripper, $ 12 for a three-​day run (oh hey, long weekend), $ 20 for a monthly pass and $ 85 for a full year. All of these memberships have the same terms: unlimited 30-​minute cycles, with an up-​charge for times beyond. Be mindful of this. Find stations and refresh the 30 minutes often (pop your bike in, get a new code and take it out again).
If a station is full, you can easily request a Time Credit from the terminal and get 15 minutes to find another station. Purty smart. Also, using a tracking app like Spotcycle or Biximo to plan your course and know what’s full — luckily, there’s usually another setup nearby.
Some stations build up bikes; others are seemingly always naked. I’d hope this is being evaluated as they expand. And of course, as the number of stations tally up, Hubway only gets more effective. It’d be nice to see some sort of timing function (a stamp on your paper code, perhaps), so you’re not relying on your iPhone for those returns at the wire. Finally, a printed confirmation for a bike return? I know the green light flicks on, but if there’s ever discrepancy, there’s no real record for the user.
The wheels themselves are durable, functional 3-​speeds that ride purposefully casually (read: slow). It’s really an amazing service, and in three (?) years, has made a tremendous impact to the local commuting scene. Even as a bike owner, I’ll be using Hubway often.

Very misleading.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE this concept! My boyfriend and I rented some bikes near BU Central last night for less than half an hour to ride them back to Brighton. We were all excited and they were easy to grab and go.
However, they forgot to mention (well, it was in VERY fine print on a tiny screen), that they would be placing a $ 200 hold on my boyfriend’s credit card because he took out both bikes, and this is some sort of «hold» which is going to last for seven days, for renting them for less than 25 min.
We could have bought a bike or two from Craigslist for the same price.

I’ve used this 2 times so far and I am a fan. I love riding bikes and now I can any time I want! I had an issue the first time where I asked it to print out my code for me, but there was no paper in the machine I guess, so I called the number and they told me to wait 5 mins and swipe my card. It worked but it was a bit of a pain to wait around. If there isn’t paper it should just tell you that!
I love this and you will too!

I signed up for an early-​bird membership when the program first started. It cost me $ 60. I’ve only used it 6 or 7 times so I probably haven’t gotten my money’s worth yet, but membership does have its privileges.
One night my wife and I went out with a friend who was visiting from out of town. We took the bus from our place down to Kenmore and got dinner down by the Fens. On the way back to Kenmore we passed the Hubway station at the corner of Boylston and Yawkey, so I took out my key and got a bike.
I had to ride in circles and go really slowly to keep pace with them. The bikes are really slow so this wasn’t a problem. It’s probably a net good that they’re slow because you’re obviously going to get some ding-​dongs who don’t know or care about the rules of the road when you have a program like this, and thanks to physics they’ll generally do less damage at lower speeds.
The bikes are heavy too. Take my advice and don’t try to pop a wheelie on one.
When we got to the bus stop I realized I’d much rather ride home than wait for a packed 57, and my wife seemed sincere when she said she wouldn’t mind if I took off. In hindsight she may have actually been pleased.
The closest station to our house is in Allston’s Union Square. I had another 20 minutes to go on foot, so I figured I would need a beer from Deep Ellum to fortify myself. I had two beers instead and had to pee behind someones bushes on the way home. Hopefully my wife won’t read this.

I want this program to work, I really do. I love cycling and want Boston to love it as much as I do.
Hubway’s marketing makes it sound like you can go for a nice ride around Boston for $ 3/​day. Not so. Instead you can go for a nice ride in 29 minute increments for $ 5/​day. Or you can keep the bike all day, but you might as well rent a sweet Mustang convertible — it’d be cheaper. Surprisingly though, my complaint isn’t centered around their silly and convoluted pricing.
My mom was in town so we thought it would be fun to ride down the Charles to Boston Common and get lunch, then ride back. I looked up pricing and how it works before we left, so I was fully aware of their pricing model. We decided to suck it up and take a leisurely trip and pay the extra money to keep the bikes for an hour one way. Our ride was beautiful and the bikes were in good condition. They’re virtually brand new and are in mechanically-​excellent shape. They’re big and heavy but easy to ride. We had a lovely day riding around Boston.
No complaints to be had until I noticed the $ 46 charge on my credit card. I was expecting a $ 14 charge — $ 5/​pp daily membership + $ 2/​pp for extra time. I called to see why I was charged so much and they said it was because one of the bikes was out for 2.5 hours. I swear we checked the bikes to make sure they were docked, but Hubway’s explanation was that it probably wasn’t docked correctly. Therefore, someone else must have ridden the bike around on my dime, then thankfully returned it to the same dock. Customer service said I should be lucky they didn’t steal it, because then I would have had a $ 1000 charge on my credit card for the lost bike. Only when I turned into Megzilla and started swearing at them, did they offer to reimburse me 50% of the extra charge. Better than nothing I guess, but it still more than doubled the cost of our fun afternoon out.
They clearly need a better system for docking and/​or a return receipt so people are more aware of whether or not the bike was really returned. I think of my mom and myself as competent people. If we screwed it up, anyone could. They also need to make the pricing more clear so people don’t feel so duped when they get a gigantic bill. The other reviews here are pretty spot-​on, so I hope Hubway fixes its problems before the whole city is against them.

CAUTION!!! READ THE FINE PRINT.
$ 91.00 for a 6 hour bike rental???
By all accounts, the new HUBWAY service should be a home run: Affordable bicycles for rent with convenient pick-​up and drop-​off locations all over the city. The only problem is that they forgot they affordable part!
Here’s the scoop: I needed to have my car serviced over near Fenway on August 15^th. Not wanting to inconvenience my wife with the drop-​off logistics, I decided to give the HUBWAY service a try. The check out process was very confusing as the electronic checkout system takes you through various information screens that need to download before allowing you to checkout. This was annoying but not a deal breaker.
The deal breaker is that despite all the screens of information you are forced to sift through, the pricing structure is not very clear and the pricing is a bit ridiculous if you intend to have the bike for more than an hour or so.
According to the HUBWAY website, a 30 – 60 minute rental would cost $ 5.00 (24 Hour Membership Fee) + $ 2.00 (for the actual time on the bike). $ 7.00…not bad for some convenient transportation right? (they do offer a few different membership packages that would also be charged independently of the time on the bike: 3Day+$ 12.00, Yearly = $ 85.00)
But after the first hour the pricing goes up dramatically and is calculated every half hour as listed below. (the company does offer discounts to registered users versus casual users)
0 — 29:59 min $ 0.00 $ 0.00
30:00 — 59:59 min $ 2.00 $ 1.50
60:00 — 89:59 min $ 6.00 $ 4.50
90:00 — 119:59 min $ 14.00 $ 12.50
2:00:00 — 2:29:59 hours $ 22.00 $ 18.50
2:30:00 — 2:59:59 hours $ 30.00 $ 24.50
3:00:00 — 3:29:59 hours $ 38.00 $ 30.50
3:30:00 — 3:59:59 hours $ 46.00 $ 36.50
4:00:00 — 4:29:59 hours $ 54.00 $ 42.50
4:30:00 — 4:59:59 hours $ 62.00 $ 48.50
5:00:00 — 5:29:59 hours $ 70.00 $ 54.50
5:30:59 — 5:59:59 hours $ 78.00 $ 60.50
6:00:00 — 6:29:59 hours $ 86.00 $ 66.50
6:30:59 — 6:59:59 hours $ 94.00 $ 72.50
7:00:00 — 23:59:59 hours $ 100.00 $ 80.00
Given the pricing structure, I am sure that a few unsuspecting tourists and denizens alike will find they could have purchased bicycles more cost effectively than using this rental service.
I will add that the Customer Service agent I spoke to at HUBWAY was very polite and immediately offered to credit back 50% of the $ 86 I was charged for my time on their bike.
All in all, I will walk or taxi next time.
Caveat emptor!

I work in Cambridge, live downtown, and I just started commuting with the New Balance Hubway bikes.
— a one-​way, 4.3 mile ride takes me 23 minutes
— checking a bike out/​returning one takes less than a minute
— roundtrip commute burns ~500 calories
— add a few calories because I seem to smile non-​stop riding these wonderful bikes along the Esplanade
— thats about 3.29 pounds a month!

I love the idea of a bicycle sharing program in Boston but I must admit that it has left room for improvement.
It’s not cheap. You must pay to be a member ($ 85/​year, $ 12/​3days, $ 5/​day), then you must pay for rides longer than 30 min. When you return a bike, you have to wait just under two minutes to check another out again (whether its the same bike or another bike), making it slightly inconvenient to station hop for ‘free’ rides. The fee scale increases sharply for rides over the 30 min mark — an hour costs $ 2, two hours is $ 20, and a full day is $ 100. For comparison, most bike shops rent bicycles for $ 30/​day. For the price of a year membership you could buy a cheap bike at Target or a decent bike off Craigslist. If a Hubway bike is not returned in a day your credit card gets charged $ 1,000. Ive encountered a few people having difficulty buying a membership with a credit card, and one kiosk with a frozen screen.
Priced as such, its clear that the system is designed for quick trips — commuting or running errands instead of recreation or sightseeing. Unfortunately, less stations were installed than planned (there are about 45 as of 8÷13÷11), and they are not well-​placed. There are clusters of stations instead of an even spread across the city. The residential section of the Back Bay is completely left out, as is Beacon Hill, most of the North End, and a huge piece of the South End. I believe they were placed based on where they could find sponsors, not out of convenience. They have plans to expand into Cambridge and Somerville in the future. There’s a cool app that tells you where the stations are, and how many bikes are available at each one (in real time, but I get a lot of ‘server errors’). I have already run into docks completely out of bikes when I’ve needed one, and docks completely filled when I’ve needed to return one. In the latter case it can give you 15 extra minutes to find another, but its a big inconvenience. Hopefully they will be better at redistributing the bikes or place more stations.
The bikes themselves are utilitarian, durable and very slow. Most noticeably there is no top tube, making getting on and off easy. They have an internal 3-​speed rear hub controlled by a grip-​shifter. The brakes, controlled by normal brake levers, are built into the hubs. The wide, hard, and slippery seat is easily raised or lowered, and cannot be completely pulled out of the frame. A generator in the front hub powers a built in white headlight and red taillights. Parts are secured to the frame with specialty bolts. There is a pseudo basket (no sides) in the front with a bungee — I’m not sure why it isn’t a real basket. When a bicycle breaks you place it in a dock and press a repair button, which will prevent it from being checked out again. It would be nice if the bikes had an indicator for how long they have been checked out for, instead of having to racing an invisible clock to get to the next station in under 30 min. I think my biggest complaint is how low the bikes are geared, making it impossible to go fast on flat ground. I’m not about to count chainring teeth but at about 10mph in 3^rd gear my pedals are spinning too quickly to keep up with. I’m sure this is a safety feature.
Locking the bikes is actually a bit difficult; it takes a some skill to get the mechanism to properly engage the bike on the first try. A guy next to me heard the noise and walked away assuming his had locked. Luckily I noticed the tiny light flash red and re-​locked it for him. I think there needs to be more of a warning when lock failed. I foresee a lot of good people getting charged 1k for a bike they thought they had returned. *Update, I have heard stories of people getting large charges after they had taken a sub-​30 minute trip. At least the next guy who took it out didn’t keep it! Always triple check to make sure it was returned properly, the locks are far from perfect.
Within minutes of returning a bike to a station, I saw a teenager try to yank it out of the dock. He gave up pretty quickly. I’m sure drunk college kids, especially tool-​wielding MechEs, will give the system a better test. Already I’ve encountered a few bikes with broken bells, out of true wheels, and one with a broken fender. I’ve also encountered two broken dock mechanisms. I hope these were lemons and the system wont fall apart this quickly.
Helmets are required by the terms of the Hubway, and are sold for $ 8 at vendors across Boston (shown on the station map). Out of all the Hubway riders I’ve seen so far, I’ve seen one, only one, person wearing a helmets. It’s also apparent that the police are not ticketing riders for violations — plenty of running red lights, sidewalk riding, and lack of signaling. This was expected.
I really hope this program will expand next season. Until then, its very limited in its practicality. Please keep in mind that the program is still new; I’ll try to keep this updated.