The University of Northern Iowa’s Office of Sustainability and the Northern Iowan Student Government are calling on faculty, staff and students to donate used bikes to support efforts to start a bike rental program on campus spring semester.

The two organizations are partnering to get the ball rolling on the rental program’s creation. They will determine the prices for rentals and get students interested to make the program a success.

A bike rental program will benefit those students that come to campus and don’t have their own bikes or other modes of transportation.

The Office of Sustainability had been discussing the possibilities of a bicycle rental program for the last three years. Some road-blocks kept it from materializing into a real possibility until recently.

The Office of Sustainability was unsure how the program should work. In the fall of 2013, students from a class taught by Eric O’Brien, university sustainability coordinator, were interested in exploring the feasibility of offering a bike rental program for students.  According to O’Brien, these students came up with how the program would look and a lot of what they envisioned is being used in the university’s program.

O’Brien says that it was student initiative that made the program successful. He points out that students took charge and worked with the university lawyer and the university risk assessor to make sure that UNI isn’t liable if students are injured while riding a rented bike.  

He predicts the rental program can  benefit those students from other countries as well. “The international programs office is one of our big sponsors. They really agreed that international students would be a group that would really benefit from this program,” said O’Brien.

This year, the Office of Sustainability has accumulated around thirty bikes. They are checking the quality of them before loaning them to students. 

Said O’Brien, the bikes will have to be safe and in good working order before they are rented out.

When asked if she would use the program, Anne Flathman, senior English education major said,“I think that it depends on the cost and the time I can rent it for and maybe I would.  There is also the issue with locking up the bike because I’ve heard of thefts. Would students be liable for chains if they were broken off?” 

A majority of the bikes the program currently has were the product of public action from bikes that were impounded by the university after the spring semester of last year.  They hope to gain more bikes from donations and repairs.

While the Sustainability Office and NISG hope to have bikes ready to go for students to rent by spring semester, this isn’t a guarantee according to O’Brien. In the event of delays, the program may open to students in the fall.