As one of the university's TDM (transportation demand management) efforts, University of New Hampshire's Office of Sustainability Programs started a community bike program with help of student volunteers.
The program used a simple method to protect the bicycles from thefts; they purchased many identical pairs of key and lock. Subscribers were given a key, and with the key, they could unlock any one of the bicycles parked around the campus.
Even though this program did not suffer from the typical theft/vandalism problem, maintainance of old bicycles gradually became a difficult issue. The original co-op prorgam was eventually dissolved, but a new rental-bicycle system with brand new special bicycles with European-style backpedal brakes (!), called Cat Cycle, is now provided by Transportation Services of the university. The "evolution" from the initial community bike project to the current system was not incidental. The initial project by OSP was supposed to be a pilot project, and successfully integrated into the university's official transportation program.
Web Site of Office of Sustainability Programs |
Web Site of UNH Transportation Services

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