BamaBikes has been providing students with the opportunity to rent campus transportation since 2006. For $10, students can register with the BamaBikes program to rent bicycles for an entire year.

According to Lance Haynie, program coordinator for UA Outdoor Recreation, BamaBikes started with an initiative started by the Student Government Association.

“It’s set up pretty well,” Haynie said. “There were three big players that came to the table to get it going. They were the Ferguson Center, University Recreation and the Office of Housing and Residential Communities. We all came together and put forth the initial funds and manpower to get it going.”

Since then, UA Outdoor Recreation has been the headquarters for the program.

Many students may not know about the program that allows students to keep bikes for up to three days.

“I think it’s [a good opportunity]. A bike is definitely useful to me to get around campus quickly when I’m late and whatnot,” said Daniel Whittemore, a sophomore majoring in economics. “I think it’s a good service to have. I think it’s a good program, but I think they should get better bikes though.”

Rachel Machtolff, a junior majoring in computer science, said she is a first semester bike rider.

“I think it’s great because they’re really cheap at $10 a semester,” she said. “It’s good for students that cannot afford to buy a bike that maybe just want to rent one for a semester and see if they like it or not before they invest a hundred plus dollars in a bike.”

There are three locations where students can pick up bikes after registering online. Station locations are at Rose Towers, the Ferguson Student Center and the Student Recreation Center.

Kelsey Deason, a desk assistant at the Ferguson Student Center, said she has people checking out bikes frequently.

“I work three-hour shifts, and I usually have four to five people come to rent bikes during my shift,” Deason said. “We have a lot of people in our database. It’s good if you can’t afford a bike or don’t want to walk or can’t walk.”

Since August of this year there have been about 360 different checkouts from BamaBikes.

Haynie said there are many international students who depend on these bikes for transportation. The bikes have baskets on the back of them that students may use when going to the grocery store and running other errands. Each one also comes with a lock.

Regions Bank recently donated 25 new bikes to support the BamaBikes initiative.

Haynie added the donation process got started through connections among individuals from Regions and the UA Outdoor Rec.

“[One of my co-workers] mentioned to one of the bank managers at Regions about the BamaBikes program in which we rent out bikes for commuting around campus,” Haynie said. “So, he thought about the idea of donating some of their green bikes that they have in their commercials to our cause.”

Haynie and the bank manager then started to communicate before the University Office of Advancement came in to assist in creating an official request letter. There was a donation ceremony held in front of the Rec Center, where Regions presented the 25 new, green bikes.

The donation was Regions is a part of the Regions Bank Build A Better Bank Bike Tour.

“We have done something in similar form at Birmingham Southern University and Samford Univesity,” said Leslie Doyle, assistant vice president for North Central Alabama Marketing. “The bikes promote exercise and are also good for the environment. It shows our support for the University and the students. We wanted to help them by adding to their fleet and now more people will be able to enjoy the program.”

The donation pushed the number of bikes to 61 that will be distributed throughout the three checkout locations on campus.

“I think it’s great,” Machtolff said. “It will increase a lot of people riding bikes. Personally, my bike motivates me to go to class because I can get their quicker. If I wake up late, I know I can make it to class on time because I have a bike to ride.”

The donation contributes to the quality of bikes as well.

“That means more people can ride better bikes,” Deason said. Some of our bikes mess up, and it’s kind of hard to fix at the time because they have to be taken to the Outdoor Rec, so sometimes it takes it a day or two to fix.”

BamaBikes will be incorporating the recently donated bikes into their distribution soon.

“The issue we run into is actually running out of bikes,” Haynie said. “We get calls pretty frequently from Rose and the Ferg saying they’re out of bikes. This donation provides more bikes for people to be able to check and that’s the main emphasis for this.”

To start using BamaBikes today or to learn more information, visit bamabikes.ua.edu.