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- Fri Aug 18, 2006 10:40 am #166 “Blue Bike” Program Launches with Festival
CHAPEL HILL August 19, 2006 The long-awaited bicycle loan collaborative for the area, the “Blue Bike Program,” will start rolling at the Blue Bike Festival to be held at Weaver Street Realty and WCOM community radio across from Weaver Street Market in Carrboro on Sunday, August 27th from 8:30am-1:00pm. This event is a combination membership drive, fundraiser, and bike collection and painting day for the bikes that will be used in the program.
With the intention to raise community awareness of this new program, three area organizations are uniting to host the festival. Students United for Responsible Global Environment (SURGE), The ReCYCLEry, and WorldLegacy strongly encourage area residents to stop by to sign up for the program, donate new or used bikes, and learn about other ways to get involved in this unique effort. Local merchants will also have an opportunity to simultaneously serve the community and boost business traffic by volunteering to act as “hubs” for the program.
The Blue Bike Program has been likened to a library system for community transportation. Members can pick up or drop off blue bikes by presenting their membership card at a hub, and use the bikes for up to 24 hours for local travel. SURGE, the key sponsor of the program, plans to establish hubs in Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and the UNC campus. Alison Carpenter, Field Coordinator for SURGE notes, “This novel approach to getting around town is a powerful and positive combination of cleaner air, reduced traffic, new life for used bikes, and true sense of community.”

Last edited by ruby on Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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- Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:33 am #167 Daily Tar Heel
Chapel Hill, NC
Festival to showcase Blue Bike plan
By: Eric Shepherd Martin, Assistant City Editor
Issue date: 8/25/06 Section: City
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The wheels on Chapel Hill and Carrboro's new community bike program will be one step closer to turning Sunday when local organizations hold the Blue Bike Festival.

The Blue Bike program will give residents access to community bicycles to check out for a day and drop off at a number of hubs throughout town.

The bikes are expected to be available to the public in mid-September.

The program is sponsored by Students United for a Responsible Global Environment, WorldLegacy, an adult learning center, and The Recyclery, an organization that helps salvage and repair bikes.

Alison Carpenter, field coordinator for SURGE, said that several bike hubs were being discussed, including sites in park-and-ride lots and on campus. Plans for hubs at Carrboro's Open-Eye Café and Chapel Hill's 3 Cups were the closest to cemented, Carpenter said.

3 Cups general manager Badi Bradley said that the shop would like to work with Blue Bike, but that some final decisions had to be made with the property's landowners first.

To ride the bikes users will either pay a $10 annual membership fee or volunteer for two hours to keep the bicycles working.

The festival will be held to foster community awareness, and it will include a fundraiser from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the WCOM community radio building at 201 N. Greensboro St. in Carrboro.

The festival will be at WCOM and at Weaver Street Realty in downtown Carrboro.

"We hope to have 20 bikes out by the end of September," Carpenter said.

"Basically we'll be disassembling bikes, and painting them Carolina blue and putting them back together," Carpenter said about the festival activities.

Marlin Eshleman, a member of WorldLegacy, said donations would be accepted during the festival, and a raffle would be held for a bike from Carrboro bike shop The Clean Machine.

"The biggest priority is going to be (buying) the bike racks themselves," Eshleman said.

Any additional funds will go to SURGE and The Recyclery for maintenance.



Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.

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- Sat Sep 02, 2006 10:05 am #170 THE HERALD SUN




BY EMILY COAKLEY : The Herald-Sun
ecoakley@heraldsun.com
Aug 27, 2006 : 6:06 pm ET

CARRBORO -- Volunteers spent Sunday painting bikes blue for a new loan program designed to encourage bicycling.

The Blue Urban Bikes will help introduce people to biking around town, said Chris Richmond of the Recyclery, one of the groups involved.

For $10 a year, Blue Urban Bike members can borrow a bicycle for up to 24 hours from different spots around Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

On Sunday, the volunteers took bicycles donated to the Recyclery apart, covered some pieces with masking tape, and then sanded them. After that, the bike frames were suspended from a rack and painted Carolina blue.

Jon Parker of Carrboro brought his wife's old mountain bike to the event, which was held in the WCOM parking lot downtown.

"I've been meaning to bring that bike to these guys," Parker said. He saw the event advertised and decided to stop by.

The bicycle was a good one, Parker said, and with some attention, it could be useful for someone else.

Organizers are starting with 30 bikes, said Alison Carpenter of Students United for a Responsible Global Environment.

After that, the goal is to grow the program by 20 bikes each year, Richmond said.

Richmond said that organizers were still working on where the hubs would be, but one location has been set: Skylight Exchange and Bookstore on West Rosemary Street.

Employees at the hubs, such as Skylight, will be trained in doing quick bike inspections as they are checked in and out.

Blue Bikes will be equipped with racks and baskets, and helmets will be available, Richmond said.

Dave Love, who also works with the Recyclery, said the bikes rebuilt for the program have many features to help riders, such as five speeds to navigate hills.

"They're super, super practical," Love said.

Love, who takes the bus to work, plans to use the bikes on days when the bus bike rack is full. He also plans to use them when friends come to town.

"The best way to see town is by bike," Love said.

The goal is to have 100 people join Blue Urban Bike in the first year, Carpenter said. By 2 p.m. Sunday, 13 people had become members.

Richard Rudin of Carrboro filled out a membership application.

"I ride a bike and it seems like a good thing to support," Rudin said. "Any cars you could take off the road would help."

Sunday's kickoff event was hosted by SURGE (a UNC student environmental group), the Recyclery and WorldLegacy.

Blue Urban Bike is one effort the Recyclery is making to get more involved in the community, Richmond said. Others include a mobile repair day to help kids in the South Estes neighborhood fix their bikes.

Since the Recyclery started in 2000, nearly 600 bikes have been fixed up and given away, Richmond said.

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- Wed Sep 13, 2006 12:01 pm #171 Raleigh News and Observer
Patrick Winn, Staff Writer
Another article about the project.

Program fights traffic by loaning bikes

Public transportation is supposed to be cheap.

Staff Writer
Public transportation is supposed to be cheap.

For the complete story ... <http://www.newsobserver.com/161/story/485271.html>http://www.newsobserver.com/161/story/485271.html