Uber, Lyft May Pay For New Framingham Bus Shelter

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Revenue from Uber and Lyft rides in Framingham may soon benefit public transit riders.

Mayor Yvonne Spicer is asking the City Council to approve spending $15,000 in local revenue from rideshare rides to build a new MWRTA bus shelter inside a Framingham Housing Authority complex.

The two rideshare companies pay a fee to the state per-ride, and that money gets divided between cities and towns in Massachusetts based on local rideshare volume. In 2018, Framingham got $32,000 from the state, and another $44,000 in 2019.

Framingham would use money from the 2018 funds to build a shelter at the corner of Carlson and Pusan roads, which is inside a Framingham Housing Authority development off of Kendall Avenue. The city would spend about $10,000 on the actual bus shelter, and another $5,000 to build a concrete pad.

"Our research indicates that public transportation ridership increases if there are available bus shelters at bus stops," Spicer wrote in a letter to Council about the shelter.

The Framingham City Council will vote on the issue Tuesday night at the regular meeting.