The Official Student Newspaper of Eckerd College
Volume 8, Issue III Oct. 28, 2016
Office of Sustainability unveils off-campus bikes By Nicole Decker Asst. News Editor Eckerd’s Office of Sustainability introduced six new white off-campus bikes for student use on Monday, Oct. 3. They are located between the Forrer and Math, Physics and Computer Science (MPC) buildings and are available to rent for up to five hours at a time. Although the program is run through the Office of Sustainability, the idea originated with sophomore Lilah Schaeffer. “I saw that a lot of my friends, and myself, didn’t have cars or any effective ways of getting off campus,” Shaeffer said. “I just realized it would just be great if the school could provide people with bikes. It’s something that I saw a lot of other colleges doing, and it seemed like a realistic idea for us.” Schaeffer came up with the idea in October 2015 and presented it to the Office of Sustainability in December. The white bikes, complete with a basket on the handlebars, were ordered in July. “First, I researched companies and compiled a list of a few vendors. Then, I figured out the logistics of it, and looked at other schools doing similar things. I did what I could of the financial piece on my own and then took all that information to Evan Bollier,” Schaeffer said. “We called companies and compiled more information together. Finally, we decided on a company, on Bike Share, and kept in contact with them.” To rent a bike, students can register on eckerd.edu/bikeshare, where they
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will receive a personal pin code that will last them until June 30, 2017. As of right now, renting an off-campus bike is free for students. However, the Office of Sustainability may begin to charge students if the bikes require more maintenance than expected. “When students receive a pin code, they have to sign a user agreement saying that they are going to take it out for no more than five hours and that they are responsible to pay for any damages done to the bike other than normal maintenance, such as a flat tire or something small like that,” Director of the Office of Sustainability Evan Bollier said. Once the user agreement is signed, students can make their way over to the bikes, enter their pin into the lock box and receive a key for their assigned bike. Although there are only six bikes now, Eckerd may purchase more depending on how the student community responds to them. “If we get more people signing up and more people using the bikes, then we will definitely scale up the program,” Schaeffer said. “There have already been a lot of instances of almost all of the bikes being checked out at once.” As of Oct. 13, there are close to 100 students registered to rent an off-campus bike. According to Schaeffer, they hope to increase that number to 300 by the end of the semester. photo by Paige Wood The new white bikes on campus are parked outside the James Center and are temporarily free and available for usage up to five hours. Each student can register online for their individual lock code in order for them to be able to rent a white bike.
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