Harvard jumped on the bandwagon as one of the original sponsors of the Hubway system, according to Brogan C. Graham, Hubway’s marketing manager.

Harvard has sponsored nine Hubway stations—five on the Allston and Longwood campuses and four set to open on the Cambridge campus this summer.

The University and Hubway are currently finalizing the locations for the new stations, according to Hubway General Manager Scott Mullen.

Hubway, which began operating in Boston last July, has scheduled a soft launch for this season on Thursday, when 60 percent of the stations open, including those at the Business School and in the athletic area. The entire system will open for the year on April 1.

Since its launch last year, the system has seen more than 3,700 subscribers, 30,000 casual users, and 142,000 rides. It currently offers 600 bikes in Boston. After the planned expansion, that number will jump to 1,000.

Each Hubway station is solar-powered and operates by credit card payment. The registration and pricing model is similar to the system used by Zipcar.

Each station, which is home to 10 bikes, costs $50,000 to build. “They aren’t cheap. It takes a long time and a lot of effort,” Mullen says.

Federal money, state and local grants, and private sponsorship combine to fund the stations, according to Mullen. The University declined to disclose the amount of Harvard’s sponsorship.

As a sponsor, Harvard’s logo will appear on the rear fender of each of the 90 bikes housed by its nine stations.

A bike share network has been in the works in Boston for the past four years. In 2008, the city of Boston created a committee on bike sharing that included representatives of Harvard, according to Freedman.

“Harvard was enthusiastic right from the start and really came through,” Freedman says.

“Bike sharing was on Harvard’s radar screen before our participation in Hubway,” wrote Colin B. Durrant, manager of sustainability communications at Harvard, in an email. Other programs at Harvard include the Law School’s Read & Ride program, which allows students at Harvard Law School to check out four bikes from the library, and CrimsonBikes, a student-run program launched in 2009.

STUDENT MOTION

Charles T. James ’09 purchased his first bicycle when he was a freshman at the College and soon taught himself how to repair bikes. During his time at the College, he repaired bikes for friends, who later gave him their bikes after they graduated.

In 2009, Leverett House Master Howard M. Georgi ’67 granted James space in Leverett House, and James opened LevBikes.