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Schools

Tufts University Rolls Out Bike Share Program

A group of bike enthusiasts hopes the program will make cycling more affordable and accessible to the university's students, staff and faculty.

Beginning this week, Tufts University will provide a free bicycle share program along with bike repair service to students, staff and faculty.

The student-run organization Tufts Bikes received a $50,000 grant from the university to purchase 30 bikes, set up a repair shop and promote biking as a sustainable way to travel the city.

Tufts affiliates will check out a key from the library to unlock the bikes. The program will provide users with helmets, lights, bike safety classes and group rides, said Daniel Heller, a spokesman for Tufts Bikes.

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“For a lot of people, they might know how to ride a bike but not how to ride in an urban area and do it safely,” Heller said.

Getting students to explore the city

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Heller said that many Tufts students rely on the public transportation or the university shuttle to get around, which limits their experience of the city. The goal of the program, he said, was to have them explore parts of Somerville and nearby cities that they normally wouldn’t.

“When I came to Tufts, I really didn’t know much about the surrounding areas,” Heller said. “But when I started riding my bike around, I discovered new areas and ways they connected to the Tufts community.”

Tufts Bikes also built a bike shop on campus so that the organization’s mechanics could repair bike share bikes and students can repair their own bikes, according to the blog. The organization will also provide students with classes on bike repair and a mechanic available to help them with repairs.

Celebrating the start of the program

Last Friday, Tufts community members gathered on campus to celebrate the launch of the program. Though Tufts Bikes had scheduled free bike rides for the community, the cold, rainy weather caused the organization to cancel that event and delay the start of the program until Monday.

Still, some 300 people showed up at the student center to check out the bikes, learn about the program and other local bike associations, eat free food from nearby businesses and spin a bike wheel to win gift certificates.

Sally Sharrow, a senior at the university and the president of Tufts Bikes, said in a speech that she wanted to make biking affordable and convenient for students. She said that many students otherwise interested in cycling hadn’t become cyclists because they weren’t willing to buy a bike or ship one from home. 

Jimmy Zuniga, a psychology student at Tufts, came to the celebration for the free chocolate ice cream from J.P. Licks, but ended up at an information booth learning how to check out a bike. Zuniga, 20, said that he used to go mountain biking back home in San Francisco, but hasn’t biked in Somerville because he doesn’t want to buy a bike to have here, too.

Zuniga hangs out in Porter, Davis and Medford squares, popular among Tufts students. But he didn’t know where Inman or Union squares were. He said he would use the bikes to come to know the city better, get to nearby hiking trails or even use to facilitate a date... it's spring, after all.

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