Students can rent a bicycle for the school year much like text book rental by signing a contract with the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s Student Government Association.
Robert Abrahamian, SGA Environmental and Sustainability Affairs Director, said “roughly 30 percent of students at UWSP bike to campus or around the city.”
Currently, SGA has 25 bikes available for rental, so supply is low while demand is high. Abrahamian’s plan over the next year includes increasing the number of bikes available and hopefully having a coordinator to oversee the program by next semester.
“I’d like to see a hundred bikes,” Abrahamian said.
With many students passionate about sustainability, the student population that commutes via bikes is growing. Student Government is currently writing a grant to the Green Fund in order to increase bicycle infrastructure and services for students.
Abrahamian is heading up the funding initiative in order to create a coordinator position that would be a student job to manage the bike share program.
Bike traffic is increasing annually both on campus and in the community.
“Stevens Point is currently looking into legislature that would implement thirteen miles of bike lanes into the city including areas like Division and Stanley Street,” said Mark Polzin, program assistant of UWSP Adventure Tours.
This pro-bike legislature would change the lane format on a busy street like Division Street from two lanes each way to one lane with a center turn lane and bike lanes on each side.
“There have been accidents around Division and Fourth in the past because people drive way too fast,” Polzin said.
Abrahamian also advocates a change in city infrastructure, “Adding bike lanes would make it a lot safer for bicyclists and pedestrians.”
As 2016 is ending there are some updates that the campus program is anticipating.
“We have racks at every building but no shelters or lanes,” Abrahamian said.
The bike share program is one of the many sustainability projects that SGA is promoting right now and building the program is a goal as soon as possible.
Abrahamian said, “We are adding a bike shelter on the north side of the DUC,” an addition that UWSP hopes to see by the end of October 2016.
After the shelter is completed at the DUC, the hope is that SGA can get more shelters around campus.
The future for UWSP looks bright for student bicyclists. “This program could develop partnerships and relationships with bike shops and bicyclists in the community,” Abrahamian said.
SGA is moving forward on projects to help boost the bike share program and could see a new program coordinator in spring 2017.
“There really are no negative aspects of expanding bike infrastructure. It’s going to make Stevens Point better for everyone,” Polzin said.