Bike Week hits campus with talks of bike share program
By Caris Horton
The Murdoch University Sustainability Team (MUST) are bringing events to campus that will encourage students to hop on their bikes.
The week has kicked with a screening of UnReal, a mountain biking film, on Bush Court at 7pm tonight to get students in the spirit.
To emphasis the power of the humble machine, MUST will also provide smoothies generated by pure cycle power during this Thursday’s market day stall.
Students are also encouraged to bring their bikes along to the Bike Doctor stall to get a quick check-up or repair.
A free breakfast on Bush Court will be provided between 7:45am to 9am this Friday only for those who have rode their bikes to campus.
The week will end with a bike repair workshop on Saturday from 2pm-4:30pm at the Bike Repair Station on Bush Court.
Registration is required for the breakfast and workshop so check out the Facebook event page for more details.
The MUST team hope that these events, funded in part by the Guild, will help to encourage more people to save precious energy.
Parking price hike aftermath
Bike Week also comes during a time of increased parking fees which Sustainability Officer, Lauren Hodson, hopes will send more students riding into university.
“There have been a lot of complaints about the increase in parking fees so why not ride?
You’ll get fit and, if you live far away, bikes are allowed on trains,” she says.
According to Hodson, current bike facilities including bike compounds, rentable individual lockers and a bike repair stand, are sufficient.
However, there is still early talk of a bike share program similar to Curtin’s.
Murdoch to follow in Curtin’s footsteps
Curtin University launched their own bike share program in October of last year with over 30 bikes and helmets provided around their campus.
With a ride costing $5 for an hour, their program works on the basis of booking a bike, entering a code to unlock it and riding around in style.
We could see this type of program coming to Murdoch with Hodson stating that such an idea is in the very early stages of discussion.
“We would love to have a program like that at Curtin however it does appear to be a very expensive set up,” she says, stating that any trial runs won’t happen until at least semester two.
“I haven’t had discussions with Curtin about the cost, or logistics, but I hope to soon.”
Guild President, Guy McDonald, is also on board for the idea but believes that all areas need to be carefully considered.
‘Bike share programs tend to face issues with bicycles and helmets going missing.
Any group planning one would need to either address that issue or have the funding required to continually replace equipment,” he says.
McDonald does say that he is still happy to talk with the University or any student club regarding Guild support for a bike scheme.
Hodson is also looking for any expressions of interest in a bike share program or ideas on how it could be run so feel free to email sustainability@student.the-guild.com.au with your suggestions.
