Getting Into Gear: The Prospect of a Campus Bike-Share System at Dalhousie University

Abstract

Dalhousie University currently funds a bike rental and repair facility known as the Dal Bike Centre. Accessibility and expansion of this center are restrained by its limited number of operation hours, as well as its inconvenient location and lack of student recognition. A third generation or ‘next generation’ Bike Share System (BSS) would provide a system of sustainable transportation that can be more readily accessed by all students and other members of a community. This study is geared towards discerning the determinants towards utilization of the current Dal Bike Centre, and furthermore to determine the plausibility of integrating a third generation BSS into Dalhousie’s three Halifax campuses. After distributing closed or structured questionnaires to students across campus, we identified that the main factors inhibiting use of the current Dal Bike Centre were in fact its inconvenient hours and location. In addition to this, we concluded that the majority of students were in favor of the implementation of a third generating BSS with a small annual fee of $25. The findings from this research suggest that the implementation of a third generation BSS would be successful on the Dalhousie campus as students would be willing to pay for and utilize the program. However, factors that affected individual’s answers included their faculty of study, type of current transportation to and from campus, as well as the distance of residents from campus. This report will entail a more descriptive analysis of the previously stated findings and conclusion of the research, however further research will be necessary in order to formulate a more decisive conclusion for future implementation.