The whir of a bike rushing past is an all too familiar sound for many students. It seems as though bikers are always zipping up and down the busy walkways between classes.
Since second semester of his first-year year, Senior Paul Christian has been biking around campus. Christian has two bikes on campus: one nice bike, and one for bad weather or when he wants to bike with a friend. “Even though it is a small campus, it is a lot of fun to bike around and you end up saving yourself a lot of time,” Christian said.
Despite having a car on campus, biking is still Christian’s preferred mode of transportation. While biking saves Christian time on campus, it also allows him to explore off campus. “I bike out to the nature park about once or twice a week,” Christian said. “And sometimes I just bike around, there are some cool places when you look.”
Last year, to increase accessible bikes, DePauw Sustainability implemented Community Bikes. Sam Short’ 18 was one of the students who headed this project. “Students should bike on campus because it makes it easy to get places quickly without driving, it’s free, it’s fun and can be a great way to get exercise between class and work,” Short said. “It’s also environmentally ethical. When living on such a small campus, there is no real need to be using a car.”
Director of the Center of Sustainability Malorie Imhoff described that the push for Community Bikes was entirely student led, resulting in the now eight bikes the Center has in rotation, with plans to get more. “The majority of them have been checked out at the end of each shift every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.”
Besides a potential $5 late fee, these bikes are free to rent with a DePauw student ID. Even though the community bikes are new, Imhoff said there is already a “culture of respecting” the bikes.
Luckily for the notoriously busy DePauw student body, biking is said to be an activity that relieves stress. When students hear that familiar whir of a bike zipping past, they should consider the benefits of biking for both the individual and the campus as a whole.
Should they find themselves in need of a bike on campus, they are available to be checked out at the Adventure Outpost on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-5 p.m. or on Sundays from 11 a.m.-12 p.m.