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AMSTERDAMIZE | 100% Lycra-Free, Guaranteed
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Free Bike? No, It’s Not Being Offered By a Creepy Guy in a Van
Categories: amsterdamize

Tristan Fowler’s contribution to the progressive collaborative blog Pushback:

“How’s this for innovation? Colleges and universities are giving away free bikes so students don’t bring their carbon-spewing, planet-killing cars to campus. The University of New England gave a bike to any new freshman who promised to keep his or her car at home. It’s a heck of a lot cheaper for these institutions to donate the bikes than it is to build a new parking lot, manage the traffic, and issue those annoying parking tickets. Plus, it’s a better way to live! I mean, the Dutch sure love their bikes in Amsterdam, and who doesn’t want to live more like the Dutch?

While some colleges aren’t quite generous to give away bikes away for free, they are using loan progams and working with local bike shops to encourage their students to ride instead of drive. At the University of California at Berkeley, students can rent a bike for a day. Students can join the program, Green Bike Share, for just $15 a semester. With a little luck, programs like these will go national, and we will listen to the charming sounds of bike chimes rather than car engines and backfire.”

  • Pierre
    There is no bad weather for cycling...just bad wardrobe. :-)
    -R0gueWarri0r
  • Maria Gatti
    Will students in Maine succeed in riding their bicycles in January and February? A touchy point here - I did ride almost all winter two years ago but this past winter was far too snowy for all but the couriers - in Nouvelle France and New England. But suspending service between November and April (as they did in Buffalo) is ridiculous. Within reason, we have to learn how to deal with cold, snowy climes. And within reason is a lot more for 20-year-olds than creaky boomers like me! (And I sure as hell am not retiring my bicycle in November, unless there is half a metre of snow!)

    Of course they are much younger. I'd be unhappy with a mountan bike with a men's frame.
  • absolutely, Kimba!
  • I think the bike sharing and free bike programs are awesome! We just need to encourage corporations to do the same thing for employees.
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