Simpson College’s Student Government Association (SGA) has partnered with the Environmental Awareness Club (EAC) to implement a new Bike Share Program.

The program will consist of five bikes being bought by SGA that will be available to all students, staff and faculty to rent for free. The program will use the bike racks between Dunn Library and Pfeiffer Dining Hall, with plans put more in later at academic and residential buildings.

The program’s organizers hope to have the bike share fully operational by the start of May Term.

EAC hopes coming up with this idea will further Simpson’s “going green” initiative, and

sophomore SGA representative Annie Fullas thinks this program will be very beneficial to campus.

“The Bike Share program will be a great way to implement a convenient means of transportation for students around campus, and it will also promote healthier lifestyles and going green,” Fullas said.

Junior SGA representative Lindsay Nash is happy EAC and other organizations on campus are coming together to make the Bike Share Program possible.

“EAC has really taken this project and made it their own,” Nash said. “They are also working with Security and the Sustainability Committee.”

Senior Gaston Akerman, safety programming undergraduate assistant for the Security office, is helping to implement this program at Simpson College.

“The students will be able to take a bike and ride it wherever they want, and then return it to the same place,” Akerman said.

Fullas is excited for Simpson to take advantage of this opportunity herself.

“Many other colleges have bike share programs implemented and bike share seemed like something our students at Simpson would want and utilize,” Fullas said. “Bike share will be a great program for students who don’t own a bike on campus. I know I’ll use the bikes; they’re free to rent and convenient to use.”

While making plans for the Bike Share Program, it was brought up that the bikes could be rented through the library instead of open usage.

“We have to rely on the students’ maturity,” Akerman said. “The initial proposal was to have a lock to the bike rack and have the student’s check out the bike through the library. You would use your ID and instead of getting a book, you would get the key with a rental period of 24 hours.”

Ultimately, SGA decided the bikes should be available at all times.

“However, the administration has been looking to that and wanted an open system and the SGA representatives think that by having them unlocked and available right away, the students are more willing to use them,” Akerman said.

Students will be able to tell apart these new bikes from personal ones because of the sleek, all black color with Simpson decals decorating them.

Nash wants to see students utilize this new program for exercise, being green and for overall convenience.

“I think that it is very important for students to get exercise and to help save the environment, and I think that with the bikes readily available for students, this might cut down on some of the vehicle usage,” Nash said.

“I also think that it might be very popular among apartment students that live a little further away.”

Nash also thinks students will be able to use the bikes off campus as well.

“I do believe that this program will be popular among students,” Nash said. “This will give students freedom to take these bikes to the store, on trails or just around campus.”

Fullas is pleased to see this program being implemented and is ready to see the impact it will make on campus life.

“The process for launching the program has been a long one, but we’re finally down to the final stages,” Fullas said. “I’m excited to see the positive impact that bike share will make within the Simpson community.”