In accordance with an idea hatched by Cycling Club leader Dan Hock, a plan is currently under consideration by multiple groups to provide students with free bicycles to get around campus, says Student Association Vice President, Mallory Wood. Groups looking into the plan include the SA, the Board of Trustees, Green Up and the Environmental Council, she says.
Working out the kinks
The plan is still in the early stages, but it would call for bicycles to be distributed around campus and locked up. Students would be issued a key that unlocks any of the locks. They could then ride a bicycle wherever needed on campus.
This year, senior Johanna Wildnauer, a member of the Environmental Council and the Cycling Club, mentioned the idea at a Board of Trustees meeting and was met with an enthusiastic response.
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Students store their bikes near the post office in Joyce Hall. |
The program could be funded as the senior class gift, Wood says. Funding could also come from the SA and the Board of Trustees.
However, funding is not the only potential obstacle the plan faces, Wood says.
“Liability's an issue,” he says. “Who's responsible if somebody fell off the bike? We'd have to strongly suggest [wearing a helmet], if not require it.”
Theft and damage by inebriated students could also be a problem, he says.
“It'd be great if we could get all the details taken care of this semester, and over the summer purchase and paint the bikes, and then it'd be up and running for next school year,” Wood says.
Bicycles in community sharing programs like this are painted a certain color, typically yellow, to identify them.
Failure at Middlebury
Similar bicycle-sharing programs have been put into action at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., the University of Vermont (UVM), and Middlebury College, among others.
However, the Yellow Bikes Cooperative at Middlebury “has officially died,” says Bobby Levine, a Middlebury student who was one of the coordinators of the program.
The program lasted roughly two years at Middlebury. The school had a fleet of about 30 bicycles, Levine says.
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Bike parking at Joyce Hall. (Photo by Tyler Machado) |
The biggest factor in the failure of the initiative at Middlebury was damage caused by drunken students, he adds.
“People get drunk in college, and they throw bikes off the cliff, and they throw bikes in the river, and they just trash the bikes,” Levine says.
The co-op lost five to 10 bicycles a semester, and they didn't want to spend money constantly replacing and repairing them, Levine says.
The program also didn't stop students from driving, he says.
Bicycle-sharing programs exist in many European cities, and typically operate by requiring riders to deposit money to take out a bicycle. They receive the money back upon its safe return.
A system like that is too expensive for a college, Levine says.
Hampshire College uses an electronic checkout system for its Yellow Bike program, where students must swipe their cards in a machine to take out a bicycle. However it's unlikely such a system could be installed here, Wildnauer says.
“We can't even get card swipes on our buildings,” she says.
Wildnauer expects that the program at St. Michael's would require participants to pay a small fee each semester in exchange for a key to unlock any bicycle locks. This would allow only authorized individuals access to the bicycles, and would ideally prevent theft and damage.
Maximizing sustainability
At Middlebury, the Yellow Bikes Cooperative was replaced by the Middlebury Bike Shop, a student-run cooperative facility. Students can buy into the co-op and have access to $2,000 worth of tools to fix up their own bicycles. The Bike Shop also offers bicycle maintenance classes, and fixes up and gives away bicycles that are found abandoned around the Middlebury campus.
St. Michael's Cycling Club Faculty Advisor Angela Irvine believes that money spent on the Yellow Bike program could potentially be put to better use in a manner similar to the Middlebury Bike Shop.
“Why wouldn't we invest in making campus resources more bike-friendly?” Irvine asks.
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Students park their bikes on the rack near Ryan Hall. (Photo by Tyler Machado) |
She suggests opening Ross and Tarrant earlier so that faculty who ride to work can shower before working, and providing heavy-duty locks to all students with bicycles to help prevent theft.
Irvine would like to see St. Michael's invest in equipment and tools so that students and faculty could maintain their own bicycles.
“We could latch onto community resources and make it cost-effective,” Irvine says.
The Cycling Club has made connections with local bicycle shops like the Old Spokes Home and Bike Recycle Vermont that could help provide supplies.
Whatever bicycle program ends up coming to fruition, sustainability is an important factor to think about, and Wildnauer wants to avoid failures like what happened at Middlebury and UVM she says.