The EZRide shuttle bus service expanded to seven-day operations this spring, offering free rides from around 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and from roughly 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends from Cambridgeport and Area II to Kendall Square, East Cambridge and North Point and even bringing riders to Boston’s North Station and back – but Cambridge city councillors aren’t sure how many people know of it.
Similarly, the university buses that shuttle Harvard and MIT students around town are free for anyone to ride, and it’s so little known that even bus drivers are out of the loop, councillors say.
“I’ve heard so many cases of people trying to get on the Harvard buses and being told by the drivers, ‘No, you don’t have a Harvard ID. You can’t get on this bus.’ And then us telling them, ‘No, actually, Harvard tells us they’re open to the public,’” councillor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler said at a March 24 meeting.
On Wednesday, though, MIT spokespeople said its shuttles are only for members of its school community, including students and others with needed ID. “That’s in part because of safety concerns related to students traveling home late at night,” Kimberly Allen said.
Tufts University also allows residents to ride its shuttles, Somerville city councilor Kristen Strezo noted in February. During its September to May operations there’s “no ID necessary, just hop on the bus,” she said, to travel between Davis Square and the school’s Medford campus or to get to its Fenway campus at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. During the academic year there’s even a Saturday grocery store shuttle – it goes to the Medford Stop & Shop on the Fellsway alongside an Aldi, Ocean State Job Lot, Chipotle, Pet Supplies Plus and other service and retailers.
A Cambridge council committee meeting Wednesday will work toward a municipal transit pilot program, though councillors and staff agreed it may be more about working with existing tools than creating something new – more about ensuring riders can get aboard a Harvard shuttle for a ride and connecting current transportation options in a coherent and helpful way.
“We have a ton of transit”
The expanded EZRide service, which drew a public launch June 3 with city and state officials from state Sen. Sal DiDomenico to Pari Kim, a Lesley University student of Netflix’s “Love on the Spectrum” series, whose Instagram account identifies her as the “biggest fan of the MBTA.” The shuttle service has run since 2002, but only Mondays through Fridays in the mornings and at peak commuter afternoon hours.
“We have MBTA buses, we have MIT buses, we have Harvard buses, we have the EZRide. We have the corporate shuttles. We have the red line. We have the green line … we have a ton of transit,” Sobrinho-Wheeler said, arguing against yet another form of transit and for a more cost-effective way to tell residents of their options, or to add stops to established routes. “There are a bunch of things we can do,” Sobrinho-Wheeler said.
Councillor Patty Nolan agreed coordination was the biggest problem in a city where residents in the north, west and east can’t get to City Hall by public transit without transferring in Harvard Square. “Instead of five shuttle buses doing various things, the dream would be a loop around the city from 6 a.m. to midnight every day,” Nolan said.
Money waiting to be spent
The idea isn’t new, and various councillors mentioned that the goal has been in place for as long as they’ve been in office.
The Community Development Department has had $300,000 for a transit study that has gone unused even as business associations, universities and consultants have all expressed interest in taking part, councillor Paul Toner said. It could also be a hands-on project for Harvard and MIT grad students, Nolan said.
It is a somewhat “embarrassing thing for government to say that we are still ready to do a study,” city manager Yi-An Huang said at the March 24 meeting. “I know this has been a conversation we’ve been having since I started – so, almost three years.”
Ten months ago, a consultant offered help for $10,000, Toner said, “and if we had followed through with that small contract loop, you might have a better idea of what we’re looking for.”
That nothing has moved forward “is kind of disheartening,” councillor Ayesha M. Wilson said.
The Transportation and Public Utilities Committee and Neighborhood & Long Term Planning, Public Facilities, Arts & Celebration Committee meet 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Televised and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
This post was updated to remove references to Pari Kim attending the launch event as the guest of state senator Sal DiDomenico.
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Could the city of Cambridge publish a route and schedule map of all of these unrelated transportation options so that people can easily figure out which routes are best for them? Something like Google maps where you can choose the begin and end points would be really helpful.
A city councilor might say that the Harvard and MIT shuttles don’t require ID, but does that make it true? Could you maybe get a quote from university officials who manage the service?
The Harvard shuttle’s website doesn’t say either way if you need an ID or not.
The MIT shuttle’s website says, “free with MIT ID”. That implies you can’t ride without ID.
If the city wants to work on providing free access to a private shuttle, they should start with the M2 to Longwood. It unambiguously requires Harvard ID. In theory you can also pay $4 to ride, but only if you buy a ticket in advance at an obscure office on an upper floor of a hospital or City Hall during business hours. I’m going to say approximately zero people have ever done that.
The EZ-ride doesn’t allow dogs. I assume most of the other shuttles on this list don’t either. When thinking about getting rid of my car (now that I’ll no longer be able to park on Broadway), I have to be able to not only take transportation but to take it with my dog, who comes with me to anywhere he’s welcome, and requires his own trips to the vet and to public spaces.
Wondering if this will end up being another “FREE” benefit offered by the City of Cambridge after the residential property owners get hit with ANOTHER 8.6% tax increase?
OMG taxes going to fund public services? The horror!
The idea that the worst thing in the world would be the wealthiest people in our community having to pay a bit more to enable necessary public services just does not feel right to me. I also think its fundamentally wrong that Cambridge consistently tries to lower the tax burden for home owners (inherently wealthier) at the expense of renters (inherently poorer) but some home owners seem to only care about themselves and not see the latter group as full people.
But as of now, no, these are privately operated but publicly accessible shuttles, no tax dollars involved.