Salisbury University makes changes to pilot bike share program

You see them all over campus. Students riding their bikes to get from point A to point B and with SU's pilot bike share program underway with DC-based company Baas Bikes, students are getting the option for a convenient way to get around campus.

One SU student says, "If you're running late you could hop on a bike real quick and it's an easy app, everyone has their phone on them at all times so it's nice and easy to use.

Although with any new program, there's always some kinks that need to be worked out.

Wayne Shelton is SU's Director for Campus Sustainability and is in charge of overseeing the program. He tells 47 ABC the first semester, there were almost 200 students using the app-based bike program, but found that their approach to pick up the bike and drop it off wherever wasn't working like they had hoped.

"If I'm looking for a bike going on a phone and finding that it's maybe a quarter of a mile away it's not as convenient as going on a phone and finding out that the rental location is always at this spot," explains Shelton.

So for spring semester, Baas Bikes fine tuned the program by creating about five rental destinations where students can still pick up a bike from, go any where on campus, but then return it to that same location so it's always at that spot.

It's something Shelton says is a better approach, "Going some place knowing bikes should be here and seeing that on your phone, I think is the best approach."

With this revision, Shelton thinks that more students will start using the app since it provides more reliability, but still providing the same convenience to students at a cost that doesn't break the bank.

"It's really affordable because you think a dollar an hour might add up, but for the amount of times that you use it and the amount of times it saves you from being late to class it's definitely worth it," says SU student, Jake Dorman.

In regards to picking this program next year, Shelton says he will have to see how the revised program pans out but thinks it will really pay off while also keeping campus as sustainable as possible.