The Future of Boston Transportation and the 4 things to Keep in Mind

 

1. Parking is expensive

With superior employment opportunities and higher salaries in the urban core, millennial’s are moving into cities at astonishing rates; and with parking prices at its ever high, with monthly rates topping $500, more and more millennial’s are evading car ownership.

 

2. The bike Sharing Monster

  • Blue Bikes continue to hold exclusivity in 4 municipalities (Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville). Its planned expansion will add 100 new stations and increase its number of bikes from 1,800 to 3,000 by the end of 2019.
  • California startups LimeBike and Spin will add 2,000 dockless bikes in 15 Boston-area towns this summer: Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford, Milton, Melrose, Newtown, Needham, Revere, Waltham, Watertown, and Winthrop
  • Beijing-based Ofo, will finally get Quincy in the bake-sharing arena with a pilot program this summer, deploying 200 yellow bikes on Quincy’s Streets.
  • Cambridge startup Ant Bicycle, started deploying bicycles across the greater Boston-area since the beginning of the year and is currently trying to address the issue of bikes being abandoned in Blue Bikes’ exclusive territory.

As the bike-sharing game skyrockets, expect to see larger bike storage spaces, or even partnerships with bike-share companies at buildings.

 

3. Boston is screaming for car ride-sharing lounges

Car ride-sharing services are driving people off of public transportation and onto the roads. In a report issued by Boston’s Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), 42% of passengers using some type of car ride-sharing system said they would have used some form of public transportation had ride-sharing systems not been available.

This shift in transportation has created serious discussions about future developments and city zoning.

 

4. Shared building vehicles, an amenity hard to find

In order to keep up with the voracious appetites of modern generations, residential buildings are starting to offer shared vehicles in their amenities packages.

Advancements in self-driving cars foreshadow an era where building owners have a fleet of cars that their residents have open access to, completely outdating the need for personal car ownership.