BikeShare bikes are lined up at the station outside of the Student Recreation Center. BikeShare bikes contain tubeless tires and GPS tracking units to track where bikes go. (Winnie Huang / Daily Titan)
A correction was made to this story at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 2.
The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) hopes to increase the viability of the city of Fullerton’s recently-implemented Bike Nation service as a transportation option for students and faculty.
Despite the fact that ridership decreased in August, OCTA and Bike Nation are expecting the numbers to increase with the addition of stations that should be ready by the end of the year, said Nathan Wheadon, marketing program administrator for OCTA.
A CSUF student spends $229 on a parking pass per semester, possibly making BikeShare a lower-cost solution to CSUF’s student parking woes. OCTA’s hope is to alleviate the congestion that students deal with in the parking structures and potentially save them money, said Wheadon.
OCTA’s approach includes functioning as a first-and-last mile option to allow those who commute by train or bus to ride a Bike Nation bike to campus and back to a train station or bus stop at the end of the day.
More than 120 annual memberships and 100 student memberships have been purchased this year. Last month, approximately 100 one-day passes were purchased and 120 bikes were checked out.
“It is something that can be seen as a convenience for students on campus…an amenity for students, faculty and staff,” said Wheadon. “…a time-saving device to make off-campus trips without having to move their car or come to campus without having to drive.”
Now, Bike Nation and OCTA want to connect with the community outside of campus and provide more stations in more locations.
“We’re talking to the property owner of the Target Center on the north side of the 57 freeway,” said Derek Fretheim, Chief operating officer for Bike Nation. “We are looking to get a bike-sharing station there to provide connectivity again for students who might want to shop at Target.”
Bike Nation and OCTA created a unique bike that will reduce major problems because of its airless tires and GPS technology, said Wheadon. The GPS technology is able to track the places that bike-sharers have gone.
The most popular station has been the CSUF Student Recreational Center, with 89 trips beginning and ending there in January through May. Commutes from the southern end of the campus at Nutwood Ave. to the SRC are also very popular.
The two-year pilot project received a $1 million budget when it launched in January 2014. The funds came from the federal government and the Mobile Air Pollution Review Committee, which funds clean air projects, Fretheim said.
“We are hoping that it’s going to take some cars off the road and encourage people to think of alternative means [of transportation],” Wheadon said.
Bike Nation’s next step will be to expand the BikeShare program into Long Beach and add stations in places like CSULB and Long Beach City College.
(Berenice Ashikian / Daily Titan)