BIKESHARE!

For this one big idea project I have thought about how I can create a petition for students to sign to press OCAD to purchase more bike racks for the students who bike. Unfortunately when I got down to thinking about it, I thought that it was not an idea that would push OCAD to buy more. I had contacted Peter Lashko who had clearly stated that there were other issues at OCAD that needed to be address first. Purchasing bike rack did not sound like a top priority.

Peter Lashko’s e-mail responds to me.

Hi Jia-Yi

The architects will tell us where and how many racks will fit onto the
property.

AS for the idea, bike racks, recycling centres, all sorts of items are
repeatedly asked for each year under Furniture & Equipment requests. We
receive possibly one million plus dollars worth of requests and while it
varies from year to year, we only fund about a quarter of it.

Each year different priorities are addressed and taken care of.


I thought that pressing the administration to purchase more bike racks was a idea that can truly benefit students and accommodate more space to encourage others to bike. It was an wonderful idea and I still think that it’s a great idea, just that I don’t think that the petition would be so effective. My new idea came when I was walking to school the day after it snow, a few weeks ago. I was amaze by the number of students who was still biking to school even thought it began snowing. That is when I saw a bike with the sign “BikeShare Program.” The sign was yellow and black and I become curious about it. I decided to investigate and it turned out to be a bike share program in Toronto. BikeShare is a bike lending program launched in 2001 by the Community Bicycle Network, a registered non-profit organization. There are 15 hubs downtown where memebers can take out a bike.






I think that the program is suited for OCAD students because there are hubs all over downtown. The price is very fair considering the price of public transportation.
• $30 student/low income
• $50 regular fee
• $75 supporter (name a BikeShare bike)
If you cannot afford $30, a minimum of 4 hours of volunteer service for any community agency or group will be accepted.

For more information visit

http://communitybicyclenetwork.org/?q=bikeshare

This is a great program setup and I think OCAD student union should be involved. This is an excellent program and there are very few OCAD students who know about this program. I hope that by posting on our BIO blog, fellow OCAD students will take advantage of the BikeShare program.

These are photographs that i took a day after it began snowing. This is evidence of the importance of bike racks to the life of OCAD students.






Some more reasons as to why we should be cycling



Cycling is a better alternative to using our vehicle that produces pollution in our air

Cycling is a excellent form of excerise in our busy fast pace world

Cycling encourages other Toronto residences to bike, thus creating a greener city.