11/15/01 General Meeting Minutes
The meeting started off with a report on the ongoing efforts to implement winter maintenance of the local bicycle paths. Rick Gilmore then discussed brush clearing efforts for the Rails-to-Trails project and noted that the next workday would be on Saturday, December 1st, meeting at 9 a.m. at Sunset Park.

The rest of the meeting consisted of a presentation by the students in Dr. Martin Pietrucha's transportation class. The students in his graduate class have been studying the feasibility of a loaner / fleet bicycle program in State College.

1. Overview of Fleet Bicycle Programs
   • Overview

     • Free, public, nonmotorized transportation. Most commonly found on college campuses.

   • Benefits

     • On-demand transportation, little infrastructure, cheap, minimal congestion / pollution.

   • Issues

     • Management: free, unlocked program (ideal, not as practical) vs. checkout `loaner' program (easier to manage, may discourage some users).
     • Funding: federal, state, and private.
     • Liability: hard to get insurance. Use at own risk? Note, no suits have been filed to date.
     • Operation and Maintenance: perhaps couple necessary maintenance with youth training programs? Space requirements?

   • Origins

     • 1960's - Netherlands
     • 1960's - UC Storrs
     • 1997 - St. Paul, Minnesota.
     • Copenhagen, Denmark. Coins required to check out bikes. Corporate sponsors used to defray costs.

2. Presentation by Team 1

   This team identified the benefits of this program to include convenience of movement, less congestion, and less parking hassle. They identified students to be, at least initially, the primary user group. In part because of this, they decided to restrict their pilot implementation to the University Park Campus.

   An email survey was conducted and 93 replies were received. Respondents indicated that they would use the bikes year-round, but were unenthusiastic about the prospect of mandated helmet use. There were some safety concerns as well as concerns about the lack of paths on campus.

   This program proposes to have 12 `hubs' on campus and approximately 20 `service' areas. The idea is to keep the fleet of ~ 200 bicycles well-distributed among these stations.

   To reduce maintenance, it was proposed to use fixed-gear bikes with solid rubber tires. The anticipated cost is $150 per bike. Maintenance will be contracted out to a local bike shop.

   The initial cost of this program was estimated to be $37,000, with an annual maintenance cost of $19,000.

   The need for significant, ongoing fundraising and volunteer efforts was noted.

3. Presentation by Team 2

   This team also conducted a survey and noted significant interest in the program by the respondents. In terms of support for this program, the team noted that space could be donated by PSU, bikes could be donated by community members and / or abandoned bikes could be utilized. Local business support would be sought for ongoing costs. The team noted that while several organizations support this project, none are yet willing to take the initiative to lead the effort.

   Again, it was proposed to restrict the initial program to the University Park campus, as this presents a large user group within a compact area. In contrast to keeping the bikes concentrated at a few dozen `hub' areas on campus, it was suggested that the fleet bikes could be used and then parked at any existing bike rack. It was noted that, while many racks already exist on campus, many others would be needed to ensure full coverage.

   In summary, to make this program work, it was stressed that publicity and leadership would be needed.