How would you like a free bike? The only catch: your precious car must be left parked at home. For freshman at two colleges, that option is giving them an alternative way to travel.
The programs at Ripon College in Wisconsin and the University of New England in Maine, which give students who don't bring a car to campus a new bike, are part of a growing trend of universities trying to discourage the use of cars on campus.
This year, 170 freshmen at Ripon College received brand new Trek 820 mountain bikes in exchange for signing a pledge not to bring a car to campus. Although the Ripon Velorution Project was started to deal with a shortage of parking on campus, the college also has promoted it as a way to "reduce the College's ecological footprint" and help lessen the "societal ills of obesity, traffic congestion, fuel consumption and pollution," according to the program's Web site.
The deal has led freshmen to "find fun in Ripon" as "more kids are spending time in town," said Ripon freshman Charlotte Evans. Calling the student response to the program "excellent," she said that it has fostered an atmosphere with new bike-owners planning excursions together. "Me and some friends go riding across town to the prairie," said Evans, adding that she has met many more people since joining the cycling community.
Ric Damm, coordinator of the program and head coach of Ripon's cycling team, said that discussions of the bike-giveaway incentive began with Ripon President David Joyce, whom Damm described as an "avid cyclist" and a fellow competitor in mountain biking series. When Joyce remarked that he wished there were more bikes used on campus, the two researched the cost of the program and Joyce made a "spur of the moment" decision to go ahead with it, Damm said.
For students attending Ripon, a college situated in a town two miles in diameter, bikes are an "ideal way to get around," Damm said. While the school plans on conducting surveys to measure how frequently the bikes are actually being used, Damm said he guessed that overall, students are riding them "less than we anticipated," but added that "several dozen are using them all the time."
At the University of New England, offering free bicycles to freshmen who don't bring cars to campus is one part of a larger program to address the issue of insufficient parking, said Kathleen Taggersell, director of marketing and communications. In addition to an expanded shuttle service, the class of 2012 had a choice of incentives to leave their cars at home: access to two Zipcars with 28 hours of free usage or a nearly $500 Gary Fisher Tiburon bicycle, complete with lock and helmet.
Taggersell said the free bike program has been "very successful," noting that 75 percent of freshmen brought cars to campus last year compared to only a quarter who did so with the new incentives. There have been no incidents of stolen bikes or other problems, Taggersell said, adding that the positive student response has translated into bike-owners taking care of their newly obtained goods.
"It's a great sight to see the tremendous number of bikes," Taggersell said, adding that they have created a "much more active campus" and encourage student access to Maine's coastal environment.
At Brown, Kurt Teichert, the University's environmental stewardship initiatives manager, said he was unfamiliar with programs that provide free bikes to freshmen and said Brown's resources are "probably better spent" on investing in the infrastructure associated with locking and storing bikes.
While he was unsure if a free bike program would work at Brown, Teichert highlighted resources such as free access to public transportation and access to five Zipcars. Additionally, in order to discourage driving on campus and reduce the need to add parking, the Transportation Office made the parking rate higher for undergraduates, Teichert said.
