Editor's note: An earlier version of this story inaccurately represented Catherine Burgess's title. The story has been updated.
For students who wish they had a way to get around campus besides walking, there may be hope.
The Red Bike Initiative, a Student Government Association-led program, will allow students to rent bikes from the school for the semester. Ideally, the program will take the abandoned bikes left on campus every year and refurbish them to repurpose as rentals.
The program launched its test trial, which consists of nine undergraduate students and one graduate student, this past week.
Catherine Burgess, chair of SGA's Community and Environment Committee, said the idea was brought up to create a sustainability project with the bikes that are abandoned every year on campus.
It helps both students and the environment by recycling the old bikes.
Burgess said so far the test trial looks promising.
“We plan on getting in touch with our volunteers, seeing how things are going," Burgess said. "Then at the end of the pilot, they are going to take a survey asking for their feedback.”
The initiative has been in the works since Fall 2015. It started with simple social media polls to see if students would be interested in the program.
After receiving positive feedback, Burgess said the council then moved on to making the connections to get the program rolling.
The council is collaborating with Outdoor Pursuits for the housing of the bikes and Kirk’s Bike Shop for the refurbishment of them.
As the trial continues, Burgess said Muncie Mayor Dennis Tyler has even started to take an interest in the program, and the council met with the Bicycle-Pedestrian Committee to share its ideas.
“They are excited to see this program potentially launch," Burgess said. "Hopefully in the future, we can pair up with the city of Muncie to make this a bigger program."
Burgess said it's one of her biggest hopes for the project to stretch into the city of Muncie.
“I really hope to see this program grow into a major bike share program integrated with the city,” she said. “There is still a lot of work to be done with logistics, but we are just doing this trial run to even see if students are interested in a program like this.”
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