Photo by: Michael Furman
A year after two DU students met with a representative of Denver and B-Cycle about a bik sharing program, the program is thriving and expanding.
Students are increasingly using rented bikes to travel between campus and downtown Denver.
A week ago, when the Homecoming parade closed off streets around campus, many people checked out the bikes to get around campus more easily. The gymnastics team, for example, rode bikes throughout the entire parade.
Sophomore Clara Chang said she used the bikes throughout the first week of the quarter because she had not renewed her RTD sticker.
She had a good experience and was able to use the bike as long as she needed because the renting process made it easy.
“I think it’s a great investment. A lot of people who aren’t able to bring their bikes or don’t want to buy one can use them,” said Change. “There are B-Cycle stations all around Denver, which is really convenient.”
Two DU seniors last year, Mary Jean O’Malley and Zoee Turrill, started the bike-sharing program on campus.
It launched last April in downtown Denver, which increased the number of available bikes this fall.
“While our annual membership numbers are lower than anticipated, the 24-hour membership numbers are much higher than we imagined, making up for the lower annual membership number. There are approximately 500 trips a day now, which is a great number,” said Brent Tongco, communications director with the Denver Bike Sharing Program. “The community support is extremely positive.”
O’Malley and Turrill have been recognized not only by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, but also by the Clinton Foundation through the Clinton Global Initiative.
Denver’s system has received positive press throughout the world for the largest public bike-sharing program in the US.
“I know that we achieved something here and I am so proud of our university and our city for being on the forefront of this innovation,” said O’Malley, who is currently working with Teach for America in Tulsa, Okla.
During their senior year, O’Malley and Turrill raised another $20,000 by fundraising and advocating for the program.
DU’s financial commitment is now over. The donation of $50,000 was one-time, and it was to install kiosks, bring the bikes and get the system up and running, said O’Malley.
As for Denver, bike sharing programs have been used since 2008.
A temporary bike program called Freewheelin was used during the Denver National Convention in 2008, designed to help thousands of attendees and visitors to move around the city in an easy and sustainable way. During the DNC, over 5,552 bikes were taken, totaling over 26,416 miles and 818,899 calories burned, said Turrill.
“What Denver has today is a third-generation bike-sharing program, an automated check out from kiosks linked via the Internet so a user can check out a bike from any station and return it to any other station,” said Turrill. “This allows people to do things like commute, drop the bike near work, and commute home later. The B-Cycle systems have been extremely successful since coming to Denver.”
