A bike share program launched at McMaster University and Mohawk College allows students to check out bicycles through the library system at no cost.
“Start the Cycle,” a non-profit cycling advocacy program, was founded by McMaster PhD student Charles Burke in 2014.
The bike share currently operates with 10 bikes on McMaster’s campus and has processed 500 checkouts since September 2015, according to Burke. Mohawk’s campus operates with 12 bicycles.
“The program started out of our lab. My co-founder . . . and I gathered some old bikes and our building-mates would borrow one from us when they needed to run errands or head into town,” Burke said.
Some of the bikes were supplied by Start the Cycle’s co-founders, which were collected after being abandoned on McMaster’s campus, according to The Silhouette, McMaster’s student newspaper.
Students can check out bikes for free from their campus library for up to 48 hours using their student card in the same way they would check out a book, according to the Start the Cycle website. The library provides a bike helmet and a key to unlock the rental bicycle at a nearby bike rack.
Burke said he believes the value of riding a bike is more valuable than the cost, which is why Start the Cycle doesn’t charge students for bike rentals.
“Think about student life and the things that upset all of us . . . parking, off-campus housing, avoiding the freshman fifteen. All these problems can be solved when a student discovers that cycling is for them,” he said.
Campus bike share programs often charge fees for rentals, including Carleton’s Right Bike program which costs $5 to rent a bike for a day, or $60 for an annual rental membership, according to Carleton’s facilities and management planning website.
To date, McMaster and Mohawk College are the only two post-secondary institutions that Start the Cycle has partnered with, though Burke noted the program has plans to expand to other campuses this Fall.
“Ottawa is one of, if not the most progressive cycling city in Canada,” he said. “If we were contacted from someone from any university or college there we would help them start a program on their campus.”
