College Bike Share Program

The Collegiate Bicycle Company is in talks with a number of major universities, most recently the University of Florida, to roll out bike share programs.  The plan works with rental stations scattered throughout campuses where students would use the ID cards or other “prepaid” type cards to use a bike for a while.

Besides the program, they also offer college themed cruisers like the ones shown above, with graphics for 22 universities so far, plus greek organizations (I wonder if that includes “ΓΔΙ”).  Click “more” for some pics of the different styles plus specs on the bikes…

Erik, one of the founders of the Collegiate Bicycle Co., said the genesis of the Bike Share program was seeing all of the parking problems and congestion on campuses.

“We started spending a lot of time on college campuses when we launched the themed bikes, and we noticed that there were just too many cars,” said Erik.  “We’re showing the university people that these bike programs are just as practical as buses.”

Their first Bike Share program is launching at a West Coast university in early 2009, and they just exhibited at the ASSHE conference in North Carolina, where they got a lot of interest from sustainability managers from campuses throughout the US.

 

The Colorado State Rams themed bike (above) and the University of Hawaii (below), shown in a women’s frame.  The bikes are steel-framed, single-speed cruisers.

 

UC Davis men’s bike.

Detail shows some of the logo placements, in this case for the UM Terps.

If you don’t see your college on their list, let them know you want one, and tell your friends.  If enough people request a certain school, they’ll meet with the powers that be to get a license.

If you’re really motivated to get your alma mater represented on bike paths, they have a Campus Rep program that gets you a free bike and an internship to help sell the bikes on campus.  Give ’em a call at 858-272-2476 for more info.

Regarding the program at UF, they’re supposed to make their decision in the next few days, so contact their Transportation Administrative Offices (I’m guessing this is a good place to start…) at 352-392-8048.  If you find a better lead, post it in a comment.