Bicycle Sharing Program Enhanced with GPS Tracking Technology
16 May 2013
GPS tracking leads the way to a bike sharing program at the University at Buffalo.
The University at Buffalo (UB) has been working on a system that will allow students to share bicycles, instead of worrying about bringing their own. The new program is called Buffalo BikeShare, and utilizes GPS technology for tracking down the bicycles.
The program has been in developments for several months, and just beginning a beta stage. UB’s Transportation Services and Office of Parking have been working closely with the Office of Sustainability in order to perfect the program.
This innovative program uses bicycles which have GPS trackers installed on them. This lets users of the BikeShare program track down a bicycle that they can rent as transportation throughout the Buffalo campus and surrounding areas. The beta test phase currently underway involves students at UB entering information into a computer in order to activate the GPS technology, and find the nearest bicycle that was available to rent. Another way to rent the bicycles, is through a keypad that is on the bicycles.
The idea behind BikeShare at UB is to offer their students a healthier, more environmentally-friendly option for making short trips around campus. Since the university has a rather large campus, it doesn’t make sense to drive vehicles for a trip that could take 5-10 minutes on a bike. The problem being most students don’t bring a bicycle to school if they drive a car. This is where the main premise behind the BikeShare program originated. Not only is it healthier for the student and better for the environment, but it reduces how much traffic is around the campus and at nearby locations.
University at Buffalo is the first university in the United States to use GPS technology for this type of bike-sharing program. BikeShare originally began as a radial bikes plan, introduced by an undergraduate who saw the need for a new bicycle-sharing program at the university, and throughout Buffalo.
Ryan McPherson, the chief sustainability officer at University at Buffalo, told reporters: “While our new bike-sharing program blends technology and sustainability in an innovative and pioneering way for higher education, it also demonstrates how the university can partner and integrate without broader community, as well as leverage our student and faculty research to create solutions that move us toward a sustainable future.”
The GPS trackable bicycles available for rent can be found at the university’s BikeShare website, where they search for nearby bicycles. They will reserve the bike from the website, and within 15 minutes, reach and unlock the bike using a PIN code the website provided them. They have an hour to use the bike for free, and then begin paying $3 an hour after that, for up to 24 hours. There is also an annual fee to utilize the BikeShare program, of $30 a year.
With the GPS tracker installed on the bike, it keeps track of their location, and requires them to stay within a certain area from the campus. When they are finished with the bike, it is returned to a proper designated area, where it is locked and available for the next person to rent. So far, the beta phase has shown it to be highly successful.
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