USask Bike Share
Taylor Barber, Stephanie Huel, Matthew Lomsnes, Anasha Pradhan, and Bingwen Wang
USask Bike Share
Currently on the USask Campus one must walk or supply their own wheels to get to and from classes. Walking, while still healthy and beneficial for the environment, isn’t nearly as fast as a bike. Therefore, we propose an alternative mode of travel. Our project goal is to develop a green, efficient, cost-effective and convenient bicycle sharing service for the USask campus. We want to promote healthy lifestyles and to reduce carbon emission by providing a fleet of bikes for the USask community. In a recent questionnaire we found that 73% of respondents, disregarding the individuals who did not answer this question, would be either likely or very likely to use such a service. Additionally, one of the leading reasons, other than the weather, to why the USask community does not bike more often is not having access to a bicycle. We want to fix that. Currently, the plan is to provide approximately five bikes for the U of S faculty, staff and students to use and enjoy. Students, staff, and faculty who are interested in using the USask Bike-Share program will sign up, pay a small fee for a membership, and receive the combinations for a fleet of locked bicycles. Afterwards, they may take the bike anywhere on campus that they desire. It will be that simple. Ultimately, we would like our USask Bike-Share project to be used as a pilot for a future program that will be more permanent and far-reaching.
Check out their project in “SaskatoonCycles” April 2020 newsletter…
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Cool idea guys! I’m wondering about steps 2 or 3 of the project. Do you plan on allowing the bikes to leave campus? Or offer multiple day rentals? The campus community attracts a lot of visitors each year, for conferences, work at the CLS, etc… An on campus bike rental service, accessible to visitors, would be great for them!
Thanks Jay, we really appreciate the support and feedback. To answer your question, as of right now we plan to have the bikes stay on campus without an option to rent for multiple days. However, we have discussed developing the program to incorporate a rental service in the future once we have a larger fleet of bicycles. We 100% encourage people visiting campus to use our Bike Share program currently and we hope to eventually have more available bikes to fill the needs of both visitors and students/staff.
Great idea! Nice to see how much you’ve accomplished. Have you thought about soliciting donations (e.g. locks, etc.) from any of Saskatoon’s wonderful bike shops? Perhaps you might offer to adorn your bikes with stickers or other advertising paraphernalia (or at least recognize them through potential promotional materials) in exchange for these types of contributions to a bike-share?
Thank you Colin, again we really appreciate the support and feedback. We have been in contact with a few great bike shops here in town about various materials for the project, including locks. We have not yet fully tackled the opportunity to exchange donations for advertisement. However, it is something we have discussed and hope the project can accomplish moving forward!
I’ve often found myself wishing I had my bike on hand to zip across campus for a meeting/class. So I expect others will embrace this service.
It seems likely that eventually the bikes will go missing or require servicing. Most bike share services I’ve encountered involved a system to tracking which member used which bike at what time (usually through the use of a credit card). Does your group intend on tracking who used which bikes (in case they are taken off campus or damaged badly)?
Hey Andrew! To answer your question, currently we do not intend on tracking who used which bikes. We hope that is an area we can expand on and improve as the service gets rolling. We do however plan on monitoring the bikes that are on campus and periodically checking them over for damage and maintenance. We have talked to protective services here on campus about monitoring the bikes and have also built a relationship with Bridge City Bicycle Coop here in town to assist us in maintenance. Thank you for your feedback and support!