I keep hearing VSU students say “I don’t have a bike here”. There’s a solution for that, as Didi Tang writes in USA Today, Bike-sharing programs spin across U.S. campuses:

Shelenhamer, 20, is one of a number of students across the USA taking advantage of free or low-cost bike sharing programs, which have become increasingly popular. Drury students agreed to pay a $20-a-year sustainability fee, which funds the bike program. The Springfield, Mo., school purchased 40 new bikes for use by students in time for the fall semester.

“It’s helped me so much,” Shelenhamer said. “It’s been fun.”

That was at Drury University. Similar programs are available elsewhere. Emory and Georgia Tech do it, through a grant from the Ford Foundation. The University of Florida does it, through the Collegiate Bicycle Company. UGA does not. :-)

“The demand is coming from students,” says Jeremy Friedman, manager of sustainability initiatives at New York University. This summer, NYU kicked off a pilot bike share program with a fleet of 30 bikes available for free checkout from the front desks of many residence halls.

Fueling the demand are the public embrace of biking culture, new miles of bike lanes and the economic recession that has many tightening their spending, Friedman says.

OK, so there aren’t many bike lanes here. But more bicycles will increase the demand for bike lanes. And meanwhile bicycles can ride in the street just like cars, as a bunch of bicycles do every month at Critical Mass.

-jsq

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