Campus Community Bike Program

[Bad JuJu]

This comes under "Good News and Bad News"...maybe. My university just instituted a campuswide "community bike program" which I'm both excited and tentatively worried about. Here are the details from our website:

New Community Bike Program
If you notice bright yellow bicycles on campus, go for a ride, it's yours! Recreation and Sports Services is now providing bicycles for the UWF community to commute on campus.
Each bike has a sticker explaining its purpose: “I am a UWF Yellow Bike. Take me for a ride on campus, leave me at a rack for anyone else.” The bikes have been renovated by the Cycling Club and Outdoor Adventures, but once they’re on the racks they literally belong to anyone wanting a quicker commute across campus.
The Yellow Bike Program includes opening a campus bike shop for community members to donate bikes, learn to fix their own bikes, pay for repairs, or purchase renovated bikes.

What a cool idea! I especially like it because I live too far away to bike-commute to campus, but now I may be able to use a yellow bike to ride around the campus when I'm there.

The bad news is that I'm a little concerned about theft. I mean, these are not high-demand type bikes, but bikes that were abandoned around campus, collected, and refurbished, plus they have that highly-identifiable bright yellow paint. But a campus is not a gated community, so who knows where these bikes might end up? I know the students have put a lot of volunteer time into ramping up this program, so I'd hate to see the results vanish. Have any of you seen this kind of program work well on another campus?

[Sheesh]

My Director has mentioned these types of programs that he has seen in Europe and I've half expected him to create a similar program for use by campus residents (I work in Housing). He hasn't yet moved in that direction - for the reasons you've stated...he's afraid of theft - but I wouldn't be surprised if he decides to try it one of these days.

[Kimmyt]

Thats pretty cool, I just hope that no one decides since the bikes are community property that they can trash them.

Paris is doing something sort of similar.... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032301753.html

[Tri Girl]

What a great idea!!!
At a local park not too far away, they have something similar. Odds and ends "leftover" bikes that are painted blinding orange, left at a rack for anyone to ride on the trails. Granted, the chains are creaky, and they're not the smoothest ride, but it's great for those that want to ride them around. As far as I know- they've been left alone.

Crossing fingers that the program takes off at the college and people respect the use of the bikes!

[pll]

That is such a neat idea!

Copenhaguen and Helsinki have city bike programs, too:

http://members.aol.com/humorme81/citybike.htm
http://members.aol.com/humorme81/helsinki.htm

In both cases, the bikes are locked with a coin and they have some sponsorship.

[Zen]

Maybe paint them multi-colors instead of solid yellow. Neon pink and fluorescent green?

People like yellow