Bluebikes offering free rides on Friday as part of bike-to-work promotion

Riders can take a free trip on Bluebikes—the bike-share that Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline own—on Friday, May 17, under an offer from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

The insurer is marking its first year sponsoring the bike-share, which expects to have more than 3,000 bikes available at 300 stations by the end of 2019. What’s more, Bluebikes is adding Everett to the network this spring with nine new stations.

The free ride day on May 17 also corresponds to national Bike to Work Day—during National Bike Month, no less! Riders can access a free Bluebikes by going to the system’s app and then plugging in the code BIKE2WORK.

Blue Cross is also encouraging riders to join one of numerous bike-commuter convoys running toward City Hall Plaza on the morning of May 17. The insurer will help treat the riders to breakfast snacks, and Bluebikes reps will be on hand to meet cyclists.

The company is also sponsoring six valets at Bluebikes’ most popular stations—Government Center, Longwood Avenue at Binney Street, Kendall Street, the M.I.T. Stata Center, West End Park, and Seaport Square—on May 17 to ensure riders will have a place to dock bikes and that bikes will be available to ride.

“We’re hoping ‘Free Ride Day’ will encourage more people to try out Bluebikes for the first time,” Kathy Klingler, chief marketing officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “During the first year of our partnership with Bluebikes, we saw a tremendous increase in ridership, which is exciting. Once people try it, they’re hooked.”