Installation of Somerville Hubway Stations Begins Next Week

The first three or four Hubway bike sharing stations will be installed in Somerville during the first week of August.

That's according to an email from Sarah Spicer, senior transportation planner with the city's Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development.

Hubway, which launched in Boston last summer, allows people to make short-term bike rentals at automated stations positioned throughout the city. The program is expanding to Somerville, Cambridge and Brookline this summer.

Somerville has bought a total of 12 Hubway stations, and Spicer said they're being installed east to west, which means the first three stations in Somerville will be in Union Square, Beacon Street (near Washington Street) and City Hall.

Because Hubway is an expanding network—people can rent bikes at one station and drop them off at any other station—the system needs to expand in a "successive pattern so that each new station is supported by other stations," Spicer explained.

Installations will occur in Cambridge and Brookline at the same time they're happening in Somerville, she said.

Spicer did not know when the installation of all 12 stations in Somerville would be complete. "The remainder of them will be installed depending on how fast manufacturers can supply the equipment," she said in the email, adding, "We intend that each station should be operational as soon as it's fully installed."

Spicer said the city has provided about $235,000 to the program, and the Federal Transit Administration has contributed about $390,000.

The city is also planning a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the first stations on Aug. 8.