January 27, 2010 Adam Sherwood
avsherwood1@yahoo.com

    Georgia Southern's campus, much like outer space, is big – really big.
    Hoofing that vast expanse of academia might be healthy, but it’s also time consuming. It’s hard to think about schoolwork when you’ve just run a marathon across campus to get to class on time.
    However, driving around can be a problem as well – wasting gas and polluting the atmosphere with those dread carbon emissions.
    Luckily there’s an organization with a solution to this problem. The Southern Adventures Center at GSU has started the Campus Cycle Program to help students solve their transportation dilemmas.
    Stephen Maenpaa at the Southern Adventures Center explains what the program is all about.
    “We’re just trying to help students get from point A to point B,” said Maenpaa. He went on to say that many students don’t have access to cars. “Transfer students and foreign exchange students usually don’t have anything they can use to get around.”
    The program aims to help those students get some transportation that won’t cost them an arm and a leg.
    A mere $30 gets a bike and bike lock for the entire semester.
    “It usually costs $20 alone for a decent bike lock,” said Maenpaa.
    Additionally, if anything goes wrong the fee also covers maintenance for the semester as well. No need to fear if the chain jumps the gears or the brakes lock up. Maenpaa assures, “There’s almost always someone there to fix the bikes.”
    All bikes in the program are donated.
    “A lot of them come from campus security,” Maenpaa explained.
    The bikes donated are stripped of all parts, painted gold, and almost completely rebuilt to ensure they will be in working order when students need them.
    They only work with six or seven speed bikes eschewing complicated eighteen speed mountain bikes to make them as user friendly as possible. As of this moment the program has 42 bikes and only 15 are rented – so there’s still a few to go around.
    This is the second semester the program has been active.
    “We had a huge response in the fall semester,” Maenpaa said. “Because there’s no orientation in the spring semester our numbers have been lower.”
    Maenpaa hopes to get the word out over GSU so as to help as many students as possible.
    Those interested in procuring a bike for the semester or those who would like information on donating one can call the Southern Adventures Center at 912-478-7227.

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