The UFV Centre for Sustainability has purchased a tricycle for students and staff to borrow, providing a carbon-neutral alternative for short-distance transportation. The $550 trike was purchased with money from an award given to the centre by the university in 2016, but the program will be expanded if it sees success.
“It’s basically a pilot to see how it goes, where the challenges are, what the uptake is like, and the demand for it,” Blair McFarlane, UFV’s energy manager, said. “As the university district expands and becomes more at the forefront, building this community around UFV, we foresee there being a true bike-share program in the future.”
A tricycle was chosen over a bike for its greater stability, visibility on the road, and the large basket between its rear wheels — also, for an element of fun. The bright red trike is a good way to get people engaged and discussing alternative forms of transportation, according to MacFarlane.
The trike share is one of several initiatives by the Centre for Sustainability designed to support and encourage cycling among UFV students and staff. The centre also implemented the bicycle repair stations at Building E in Abbotsford and Building A in Chilliwack, and the bike lockers and bike racks on both campuses. The locations for these repair stations and lockers were strategically chosen to place the end of commuters’ journeys near showers, change rooms, and lockers in UFV’s fitness facilities.
“For people who are commuting, one of the barriers might be ‘I don’t want to arrive to school or work sweaty,’” McFarlane said. “Now you can, but you can still shower and change, and those amenities are right there.”
Building E’s showers and change rooms are free to use without a fitness centre membership, and lockers may be rented in Building E by fitness centre members, or in the Student Union Building by any student.
The trike is available from the Campus Planning and Facilities Management office in B150, and can be taken out for two hours at a time between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Bookings can be made online through the Centre for Sustainability. A lock is provided with the rental, but students will be held responsible for the cost of replacement if the trike is stolen while in their custody, and repairs if it is damaged.
According to McFarlane, development in the UDistrict may help alleviate the infrastructure issues that prevent many people from cycling to UFV.
The UDistrict is a high-density, mixed-use neighbourhood being planned by the city for development, which will be centred around UFV’s Abbotsford campus. According to the neighbourhood plan on the City of Abbotsford’s website, there will be an emphasis on cyclist-friendly street design, end-of-trip facilities, and off-street bicycle parking. The Salton pedestrian walkway, which gives pedestrians and cyclists an alternative route across the highway rather than the McCallum roundabouts, was installed as part of the UDistrict plan.
“There’s a lot of barriers to cycling, whether that’s [a lack of] separated bike lanes on municipality streets, weather concerns, or infrastructure, or the sweatiness factor,” McFarlane said.
Citing the high cost of driving and the increasing difficulty many face finding parking at UFV, McFarlane said that eventually, “Cycling could be that missing piece for a lot of people within a certain radius [of UFV].”
The Centre for Sustainability’s next project is to install a stationary bike on the Abbotsford campus which, when pedalled, can be used to charge a cellphone. This active charging station was made by UFV trades and technology students as part of the City Studio program, in which students work directly with the City of Abbotsford to address real local issues, like encouraging the use of public parks by providing charging stations. At UFV, the station will be a showpiece designed to connect people with energy production and consumption.
Feedback from students and staff on the trike-share program can be sent to sustainability@ufv.ca and will be crucial to making the program accessible and valuable to the community, McFarlane said.
