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Welcome - my name is Kevin Klinkenberg, and this site "The Messy City" is my blog and company website. I started blogging on urban planning and design issues in 2007, and began working in the field in 1993. Please feel free to connect with me on any of the social media sites listed here. Thanks for reading.

Bike sharing - good for your health, too

Some Boston physicians have gotten creative:

Beantown physicians have started offering poor patients $5 memberships to the Hubway bikesharing program, which normally costs $85 a year. It’s called Prescribe-a-Bike, and the goal is to help reduce obesity. Writes Streetsblog:

The program is being administered by Boston Medical Center in partnership with the city of Boston. Qualifying patients will have access to Hubway’s 1,100 bikes at 130 locations. Participants will also receive a free helmet …

Local officials hope the program will result in about 1,000 additional memberships.

Only about 14 percent of Hubway bike-share stations are in low-income neighborhoods — a grand total of 13 — but hopefully that’ll change if Prescribe-a-Bike catches on.

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