On my recent trip to London, I noticed the bike rental system they had going on there. Some of you may know what I'm talking about. The nice grey bikes with the Barclay's logos on them? I'm not exactly sure how the rental process worked, but I saw plenty of "stations" so to speak around the city, and more than just a few people using them.
Towards the beginning of this semester, I was walking up the main large hill on our campus (which I have to trek up nearly every day). Depending on what classes I have that day, I decide whether or not I will ride my bike to school. I like riding bikes, but not so much to my current classes. You see, I have a single speed bike. Not only that, I have a fixed gear bike. It's not exactly fun to ride up that hill. And only a few of the building up there even have bike racks for me to lock up my bike. And the ones that do, only have a few. So I had a thought. What if we implement a bike rental system on our campus (and all other campuses for that matter. I'm sure UC Davis kids would love it)? A lot of kids want to bring their bike to school, but unless you live within driving distance, it's not really feasible. Bikes aren't exactly cheap, so it's not as easy to just throw down a couple hundred bucks to buy a new one. And even if you do bring your bike, if you've got a track bike or something, it's not exactly useful for a campus like Cal, with all its potholes and hills. So why not provide them?
This is how it would work. There would be a fleet of mountain bikes that any student can rent. Bike lock stations would be strategically placed throughout the school (along with normal bike racks). We already have ID cards that work as keycards. Granted, you have to apply for them, but they get approved pretty easily. But in this system, you don't have to apply for them, it comes included in your tuition, just like our Alameda County bus passes. Yes, some people do complain that they don't use the bus, and they don't like that they are forced to pay 60-some dollars as part of their tuition. But my thought is... it's your loss. The service is provided there for you. The cost for us to get semesterly bus passes is extremely low and good value. Why wouldn't you use it? Anyway, back to the idea. Each student would be charged a comparatively small fee (especially compared to buying a brand new bike), and their ID cards would work as their rental card. Each bike station would have one of those sensors, similar to the ones used for meal points, or key card access. Or even mass transit system cards (Bay Area's Clipper, UK's Oyster, etc). Since each ID card is unique, the system can easily track who's card was used to unlock a bike from one of the stations. You would be allotted a certain amount of time (let's say a full 24 hours) before you have to return the bike to any station around campus. Once you replace the bike and swipe your card again, the system recognizes you've returned the bike within the alloted time (kind of like how parking structures work), and you're fine. You can check out another bike if you need to. If you don't meet the deadline, there'd be a fee for every hour your late or something like that, and if you don't return the bike after a certain amount of time, then it's assumed you lost or stole the bike, and your account (at my school, all students have what is essentially an university billing account) will be charged the full amount of what the bike costed, let's say $250.
With this system, students wouldn't have to worry about trying to stuff their bike into their trunk, or getting it mailed. I was certainly pining away from my bike until I was able to bring it up. And if you don't have the best type of bike to get around campus, that's alright, because they'll be provided. And a pretty big selling point? It creates revenue for the school! Thousands of students being charged a small amount for the bike rental system sure adds up. And with that, creates more jobs. You'll have to have at some people doing general maintenance on the bikes and the stations. Plus, you'll need someone to go around and make sure each station has close to the same number of bikes at the end of the day. Too bad this'll probably be expensive to implement right now, with schools not having enough money for classes even. But once it get implemented, it would help. I just wish I knew who I could submit this idea to.
