Students Test—and Improve—a Community Bike-Sharing Program

When the Democratic National Convention hit Denver in August 2008, the city launched a temporary bike-sharing program to provide easy, emissions-free transportation to guests. It was such a hit that Denver leaders decided to expand the program permanently, but they needed a pilot program to test the technologies involved.

University of Denver students were more than happy to lead the charge on campus, and their legacy is a citywide bike-sharing program that, in its first month, kept more than 10 tons of carbon emissions out of Denver skies.

A bike-sharing program allows members, who pay a daily or annual fee, to check bikes out at one station and return them at any other station in the system, much like a library.

The program launched on campus in fall 2009 and ran until April 2010, when the city of Denver took it over.

“In the first and second quarter when we were running our own program, we had 1,000 unique users,” said Dillon Doyle, a student senator involved in the DU pilot project. “The actual number of uses was much higher because some of those people checked bikes out multiple times. It was very successful.”

Brent Tongco, interim communications director for Denver Bike Sharing, which runs the city’s B-cycle program, says DU’s eagerness to serve as a pilot helped the city study snags in the system before expanding on April 22.

“In the first month that the city controlled the system, people checked out 12,000 bikes,” Tongco said. “That equates to 43,000 miles logged, about 2 million calories burned and up to 23,000 pounds of carbon emissions prevented.”

Doyle is not surprised that DU students embraced and helped to improve the bike program.

“It says a lot about what DU students are committed to,” he said. “We’re committed to greening ourselves and our school, as well as our community.”