[sustran] Re: What to do with 900 bikes?

[H. S. Sudhira]

At the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore the students have re-used the
cycles and put them on common use. They have called it "Common Usage
Bicycles (CUBs)".

Every year about 300 students join the Institute and about 200-250 graduate.
Most students use bicycles to commute on campus. Hence, new students joining
typically end up buying new cycles, while the graduating students leave
their cycles on campus and move out. These left over cycles used to end up
as scrap. And later it was the onus of Centre for Campus Management and
Development to dispose them.

However, this year the Students'' Council along with a few volunteers took
the initiative to re-cycle all the dis-used bicycles. They came up with a
proposal for re-cycling them by asking one to repair two bicycles and keep
one for him/herself and the other for the common pool. By this method, they
have been able to get almost 140 bicycles re-cycled. About 65 of them have
been put on common usage at various locations. It has been a big success and
the initial usage has been good.

Yet, there are challenges that the Students' Council has been facing with
respect to repair and maintenance. A good model for ensuring the maintenance
is yet to be put in place. Suggestions can be mailed to:
scouncil at tejas.serc.iisc.ernet.in

Sudhira.





On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 12:36 PM, Pascal van den Noort <
operations at velomondial.net> wrote:

> We have three purposes for left over bikes in Amsterdam:
> 1. scrap the really bad ones
> 2. sell for very cheap to students
> 3. send the rest to developing countries
>
> Number 1 & 2 would work I guess.
>
> Plus: Make a law forbidding police to take away their transport if some
> rule is trespassed. Are cars taken away if drivers don't use their safety
> belts?
>
>
> Pascal J.W. van den Noort
> Executive Director Velo Mondial
>
> http://velomondial.blogspot.com
> operations at velomondial.net
>
> +31206270675 landline
> +31627055688 mobile phone
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mar 11, 2010, at 2:43 AM, Carlosfelipe Pardo wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have a practical problem: Bogotá's traffic police have taken away
> > bicycles from people not wearing helmets, and getting them back costs
> > more than the actual cost of the bike. In consequence, there are a
> > couple of yards with some 900 bikes sitting there for the last 10
> > years. This week a judge has told a local organization that they are
> > willing to "donate them" for a noble cause, but that they must be
> > taken from the yards before this Friday. They are getting a warehouse
> > to store them at least from Friday and during some weeks, but now the
> > questions are:
> > - Will they be at all useful (imagine, bikes that have been in the
> > open and under rain, sun, etc for up to 10 years...)?
> > - If they're not useful as fully-functional bikes, what can they be
> > used for? Some people have said they should do a sculpture, do various
> > sculptures and do an auction with those sculptures, turn them into
> > blocks of scrap metal...
> >
> > Now my question to all of you is: what would you do with 900
> > used-disfunctional bicycles? (of course, imagine you have very limited
> > amounts of money to do something).
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > --
> > Carlosfelipe Pardo
> > --------------------------------------------------------
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