Marco Gobbatto | Contributor
Featured image: Bicycle usage continues to increase, but critics wonder their usage at York due to cold weather and low summer enrollment. | Amir Yazdanparast
York cyclists might finally have more resources available to them as campus non-profit organization Regenesis @ York and York’s Division of Advancement advocate for the construction of a bike centre for students.
Regenesis @ York plans to provide bike rentals, repair services and workshops for bike owners. The bike centre is meant to address the needs of students who want to use a bike to get around campus.
To this end, Regenesis @ York entered the Aviva Community Fund, which provides funding for community-based projects in Canada. The winnings include $5,000 for the top five candidates and a possible top prize of full funding.
Communication and Events Director for Regenesis @ York Shadiya Aidid explains that York was in eighth place for the contest and requires a top-five finish to make it to the finals. The finalists will be announced November 7.
“We have applied for $75,000 and it will go directly to the cost of equipment, tools, mechanics, bikes, work-study positions and development costs,” says Aidid.
Fourth-year communications student Hukam Mann believes the bike centre is a step in the right direction for York, allowing for alternative ways to travel around campus for those who have classes far apart. He thinks the university shouldn’t fund the whole project if they don’t make it to the top five.
There might be better ways of supporting bike users at York, according to Hukam. People could have small stations around campus to park their bikes as they go from class to class.
Questions still remain about how rented bikes will be parked around campus.
York communications graduate and former cyclist Saren Madhavan says he finds the bike centre to be impractical. Madhavan explains that usage of the bike centre would be low in the fall and winter, as well as when York’s student population drops in the summer.
York currently has 1,500 students who use bikes on campus and have no facilities that cater to the needs of a cyclist, according to Aidid. Regenesis @ York is looking to accommodate these needs with the bike centre, as bike usage is increasing each year.
The bike centre will be built at the new Quad residence building, and Regenesis @ York will use the Pay What You Can model to make it more accessible to students.
