Today I went biking for the first time after almost a year. It was my first time biking in Boston so I was a bit nervous at first. I’ve read news articles and witnessed biking accidents in cities and I was definitely trying to be as safe as possible. I’ve always heard the Bluebikes in Boston are really convenient and relatively inexpensive so I decided to try it out for the first time today. We first went to the Bluebikes station at North Lot (right across the street from the AAC!), but there weren’t enough bikes there for all four of us so we decided to walk to another station which was only 5 minutes away in front of the Christian Science Museum. In order to use the Bluebikes, you have to download their app. The registration only took me thirty seconds and it basically just asks you for your name and to agree with their terms and liability conditions. Once you’ve signed up, you can choose to unlock a bike at the station and it will ask you to choose a plan. Since it was my first time using Bluebikes, I chose the one time plan, which cost $2.50. I know a lot of people who use the annual plan which is $99. Once you have chosen a plan, you are given a code and you can enter the code on whichever bike you want in order to unlock it. It was really simple and easy. It is a good thing to note that you can ride the bike for 30 minutes if you use the one time plan, if you go beyond 30 minutes, it will charge you an extra $2.50 and so on.
Once we’ve unlocked our bikes, we started riding down Mass Ave. It was quite intimidating at first because as I said before it was the first time I’ve rode a bike after almost a year, and on top of that, riding a bike in a city just adds a whole other level of stress. While I did struggle at first, it took me no time to get used to it. Boston actually has designated bike lanes which are really convenient and safe for bikers. We went down Mass Ave. and decided to ride along the Charles River. It was the perfect weather to ride bikes as it wasn’t too cold or too hot and there was a nice breeze along the waters. Once our thirty minute timer was almost up, we decided to ride across Cambridge for brunch and then go to Hmart. After our Hmart haul, we biked back. It was honestly kinda scary riding on the bridge as there were no dividers that separates the bike lane from the car lane, but if you just stay within the line, you’d be fine. Coming back, I had some groceries so I just placed it on the basket that the bike comes with and secured it with the elastic. We rode all the way to the Bluebikes station at Ruggles and was overall a great experience and I would definitely do it again. I would recommend you all to try this out especially before the weather gets any cooler. It’s the perfect way to get some exercise in while de-stressing before your exams and finals!
