NYT: "With Free Bikes, Challenging Car Culture on Campus"

The University of New England and Ripon College in Wisconsin are giving free bikes to freshmen who promise to leave their cars at home. Other colleges are setting up free bike sharing or rental programs, and some universities are partnering with bike shops to offer discounts on purchases.

College bikes are stored outside in the weather, like the ubiquitous "work bikes" you see outside of every home in Holland. My son's old mountain bike, painted a very funky black and secured with a U lock, lasted four years at Stanford. After graduation, while he was searching for a job and apartment, he left the bike locked up on campus. A couple of weeks later when he came to retrieve it, the bike had been stolen.

Bike theft on campuses everywhere is at epidemic levels. I can imagine that even these "Free Bikes" will be stolen regularly. I just hope the program can survive such abuses.