New bike share program coming to NYU
Students and staff at NYU may soon be getting some free wheels.
A group of students is starting a pilot program that will allow anyone with an NYU ID to use communal bicycles for up to three hours a day during the week and six hours on weekends.
The program, based on a similar one in Paris, is aimed at making trips between classes more convenient for students while also serving as a model for eco-friendly transportation.
Lindsi Seegmiller, a senior majoring in environmental studies who serves as a project coordinator for NYU Bike Share, said the response has been good.
“Every time someone hears about it they want to sign up,” she said. “It’s a perfect campus for a bike share because we’re spread out but we’re not too spread out.”
The program, which is still being developed, would work like this: Bicycles would be kept at two locations – a dorm on East 7th Street and the bike parking lot at Tisch Hall on West 4th Street – and those who want to borrow one would reserve a time on a Web site by entering their NYU ID number.
The person would go to the location at the appointed time and swipe their card to open a box containing the keys to the lock on the bike they reserved. The bike can then be returned to either place.
“It’s designed to offer folks an alternative method of getting around campus,” said Christopher James, a spokesman for NYU.
Organizers don’t know exactly when the program will start. Thirty bikes have been purchased and the computer system is being developed. The project is being funded with a $13,000 grant from the NYU Green Grants Initiative, said James.
