The Vassar Student Association (VSA) plans to launch the Dynamic Bicycles bike share program on campus in the Fall 2023 semester. Students will be able to check out a VSA-branded bike for a few hours and return it to one of eight magnetic bike docks across campus, at no charge, through the Vassar app.
The idea initially came from a budget surplus of $423,774.96, a result of conservative budgeting and miscommunication between the VSA and the College. “[The Executive Board] agreed we needed something that was visible and actually really benefited students and we had the money,” VSA Vice President Joe Mangan ’23 said. “It should be, as a first start, a pretty encompassing bike program and they’ll always be free to students.” The Bike Share program’s total cost amounts to $50,000, according to Mangan.
The program is the culmination of the VSA’s Annual Comprehensive Survey taken in Summer 2022, in which 50.9 percent of respondents wanted bike loans from the Safety Department’s fleet and 48.7 percent of respondents said they would use a temporary bike rental service. From the student opinions gathered, the VSA created advocacy goals for the academic year in its annual Priorities and Initiatives proposal. Initiative 5.6, “Expand bike program access to students,” pushes for a bike-share program that increases bike access and parking.
“The main imperative was that we had surveyed students and there was interest. It’s also a reflection of a general awareness that, while we’re a small school, we have a pretty large campus, and it would be nice to be able to move around a little bit quicker,” Mangan said. He continued, “The survey helped a lot to put on the table an idea that was popular.”
The proposed program will be not only accessible, but convenient. “The bike racks are magnetically docked. You can use the [Vassar] app [to check a bike], the bike comes unlocked and it’s yours. The bikes also have a lock of their own so you can take it somewhere, lock it up, hang out for a while and take it back to a rack,” Mangan said. The eight rack locations include the Farm, the three apartment areas, the Deece, Main House, New England Building and Kenyon Hall. 57 bike slots will be available for the 27 short-term rental bikes. He added, “You’d have to put in a credit card when you sign up for it, just in case the bike gets lost or damaged significantly.” In the event of damage or loss, students would be billed.
Throughout the school year, Mangan met with various stakeholders to plan and implement the bike share program. The Dynamic Bicycles company’s bike fleet was chosen for its smaller size, specialization in college campuses and custom branding. The Campus Master Planning Committee reviewed bike rack locations, Safety and Security discussed how to secure bikes over breaks and winter, Grounds Manager Dean Jaeger approved locations and finalized installation logistics and the Bike Shop agreed to provide bike maintenance as needed.
The VSA is looking to subsidize the Bike Shop’s cost of maintenance materials and hire additional workers to meet the increased needs of the bike share. The Vassar Bike and DIY Repair Shop is a student-run community bike shop, free for all Vassar students and community members.
“I think Fix-It is a good program but it does require a lot of time and it’s kind of a small scale thing until we get more funding,” VSA Treasurer Max Nevius ’23 said. Last semester, Fix It loaned out 30 bikes and offered short-term rentals.
“[The bike-share] is a good step for getting people more involved in biking, there’s definitely a need to have it on this campus as a mode of transport that’s more accessible,” Bike Shop mechanic Carmen Skinder ’26 said. “The difference between moving around on a bike versus walking kind of changes how you experience Vassar.”
“There’s been a large discussion around how our bikes on campus are operated, and who’s responsible for it,” Mangan said. The Bike Shop works with Campus Safety to find abandoned bikes and loan them to students. Campus Safety also has an independent bike-loan program of 40 bikes. Yet 95 percent of the Annual Comprehensive Survey respondents were unaware of the program. “If someone you know is looking to have a bike, we’re trying to get it all integrated [and] the front end of that operation done through the bike shop instead of through Safety,” Mangan explained.
In 2009, the VSA implemented a similar bike share program, “The Shared Bike Program” or PinkBike colloquially. But by the end of the “Shared Bike Program,” only about half the bikes were rideable. It utilized a crude key locking system and altruistic maintenance, differing from the modern-day locking and storing technologies of the incoming bike share. Mangan added that when he and VSA President Julián Aguilar ’23 first entered the VSA in 2019, legislative process and an advocacy agenda were largely absent. Now, they are able to understand what concerns are important to the entire student body through the survey and take actionable steps to advocate.
“It gives me good hope for the VSA in a couple of years ahead,” Mangan said. “Being well put together enough this year that we can even think about VSA mobilizing so quickly over the course of the year to start a bike share program this substantial is amazing.”