U. to launch bike-sharing program in late fall

The University will pilot its own bike-sharingprogram beginning in the late fall, organized by the University’s transportation and parking department.

The pilotbike-sharingprogram will consist of 10 bicycles available for rental at the new Dinky station. These bikes will have to be picked up and returned to thebikespaces there. In addition to the 10 bikes used as part of the rental program, the University will install racks with spaces for nearly 100 bikes, allowing people to park bikes they already own near the Dinky station. There will also be 20 bike lockers near the West Garage.

Princeton’s new bike-sharing program will offer a new and useful method of transportation to and from the train station, University Director of Community and Regional Affairs Kristen Appelget explained.

“Once you got off the train before, you could walk, take a taxi or take the bus,” Appelget said. “This introduces an option that gives you more flexibility.”

While University students may benefit from thisbikerental program, the program is designed to help a more general audience, namely those who often need to travel using Princeton Station.

“This short-termbikerental program was designed with commuters and people using the station in mind … The primary audience for thebikerental program is not undergraduate and graduate students that are in residence at Princeton,” Appelget said. “It is intended to be for people who are using the station as a means of transportation to and from Princeton.”

Nevertheless, students have reacted positively to the development of this newbikerental program.

“I’m a New York girl,"Philomina Kane ’17 said,"so I have already witnessed the benefits of abike-shareprogram, and I am so happy that they are bringing it to Princeton.”

The cost for renting abikewill be announced in late fall as the station completes construction.

The University's bike-sharing program resembles New York City’s Citi Bike program, which places bikes at stations around New York, allowing residents and visitors to travel around the city by bike. Citi Bike began in May 2013 and is now the largest bike-sharing program in the country. Other similar programs include the Bay Area Bike Share program near San Francisco, Calif., and SmartBike DC in the District of Columbia.