For release: Oct. 31, 2012
News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu
MTSU Campus
Recreation contact: Josh Stone, 615-904-8484 or Josh.Stone@mtsu.edu
MURFREESBORO — For
$15 for the fall and spring semesters, MTSU students are getting a great deal
for bicycle rental and regular repairs on campus that’s helping ease their pain
of finding a parking space for their cars and trucks.
The new Blue Raider Bike Program offered through the Campus
Recreation Center is a huge hit with students — and faculty and staff can enjoy
the benefits of the bike shop, too.
The program, implemented at the start of the fall semester
in late August, encourages the student population (25,394 enrolled this fall)
to ride bicycles instead of driving cars across campus.
Campus Rec has 15 Origin8 Cutler bicycles and also mountain
bikes available for rental from the bike shop, which is open from 7:45 to 10
a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“The good of it,” said Josh Stone, associate director of
recreation programs, “is they’re in high demand,” talking about 15 commuter
bikes. “The bad of it: They’re all gone.”
Stone was viewing a virtually empty bike rack on a recent
October morning. Moments later, while checking the sign-out sheet, he said most
of the 14 bikes were due back in by the end of the day. (One bike, which needed
repairs, was being held out of the rental fleet.)
Junior Suzanne Sallaj of Murfreesboro utilizes the rental
program.
“I use the rented bike for classes,” Sallaj said. “Since the
campus is large and in-between time is condensed, a bike is the best
transportation. Parking isn’t an issue, space of riding is available and the
cost is nothing except for the per semester $15 fee.”
“I think it’s terrific,” said Dr. Phil Oliver, associate
professor in philosophy and auto commuter from his Nashville home. “Along with the new dedicated bike/bus
lanes, it makes our campus ‘greener’ and more navigable. It also models a form
of transport we need to encourage in all our communities. This is one of the
things we discuss in my environmental ethics course.”
A $39,000 grant, obtained earlier this year through a Clean
Energy Fee, paved the way for the bike rental program and full-service bike
shop.
“We expected it to be very slow and catch on eventually,”
Stone said. “It was a snow-ball effect. All of a sudden, it became a blizzard.”
By September’s end, word spread around campus about the
one-speed bikes, which do not have gears because of MTSU’s flat campus and for
lower upkeep and maintenance.
“By the end of September, we were really busy, to the point
where we were seeing empty racks where the bikes are supposed to be,” Stone
said.
Oliver said he both rents from the bike shop and brings his
own bicycle.
“Having the
option to rent will free me to ride on campus even on those days when I didn't
load the bike on the back of my car,” he said.
Oliver said by
bike he “travels between my building (James Union) to the rec center, the
Student Union Building, Walker Library (including Starbucks) and to class when
it’s distant. Last semester, I had a hard time getting to classes in the
education building on time, without a bike. This should solve that problem in
the future.”
The $15 fee allows students an unlimited number of rentals
and repairs “as long as it is normal wear and tear items,” Stone said. The fee
includes a helmet, lock and basket used to carry books or shopping purchases.
Each rental is for 48 hours. When returned, after a
10-minute maintenance check, it can be renewed for an additional 48 hours based
on availability.
For faculty and staff who own their own bike and purchase
the card, their normal wear and tear repairs (flat tires, brake pads, etc.)
will be covered.
Oliver said the bike shop performed a tune-up on his “old
Raleigh” for $25, half of what his previous tune-up cost, and “they did a good
job.”
Shelters, which can accommodate 15 bicycles and expected to
be built by the end of November, will be stationed in the Greenland Drive and
Rutherford Boulevard parking lots, enabling commuters to park there and bike to
their inner campus destinations.
Stone said an additional grant will be pursued for next year
that will double the number of bikes in the program.
He added that the bike shop would be closed most of December
and January, reopening in February 2013 with new hours. For more information,
call 615-904-8335.
###
Photo captions
Josh Stone1.jpg
Josh Stone discusses
details of the Bike Shop bicycle repair program. Stone serves as associate
director of Campus Recreation programs and performs repairs. (Photo by MTSU
News and Media Relations)
Natalee Lewis1.jpg
Natalee Lewis, an
MTSU junior nutrition major from Murfreesboro, checks a brake pad on one of the
Origin8 Cutler rental bicycles. She is a technician in the Bike Shop. (Photo by
MTSU News and Media Relations)
MTSU is
committed to developing a community devoted to learning, growth and service. We
hold these values dear, and there’s a simple phrase that conveys them: “I
am True Blue.” Learn more at www.mtsu.edu/trueblue. For MTSU news any time,
visit www.MTSUNews.com.
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