On Tuesday, the Sustainability Office launched the “Bowdoin Bike Share Program,” giving students, faculty and staff a new way to travel around campus.

The program features a fleet of five bikes, which are stored outside Hawthorne-Longfellow Library (H-L). According to the program’s website, students must complete a bike safety training module on CampusGroups before using the bikes. Following this, students can collect a key and helmet from inside H-L and check out a bike for the day.

According to Director of Sustainability Keisha Payson, the idea for the program was first developed over a year ago by a former student employee.

“We had a student employee, Sejal Prachand ’24, who worked on bike issues for our office and helped develop our initial bike website,” Payson wrote in an email to the Orient. “Despite all the bicycles we see around campus, [Prachand] recognized that there are still quite a few students on campus who don’t have access to a bike.”

Though other opportunities exist for students to access bicycles, like the Yellow Bike Club’s borrowing lottery system, Payson emphasized that demand still exists among students.

“Each year, dozens more students enter the Yellow Bike Club lottery than the club can offer bicycles to…, so we hope that this program can offer bicycling opportunities for students not lucky enough to get a Yellow Bike Club membership or have their own bicycle on campus,” Payson wrote.

Payson explained how the new program plays an essential role in promoting green transportation on campus as Bowdoin works to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2042.

“Transportation is a major sector of greenhouse gas emissions. Any time we can introduce or encourage alternative transportation, I see that as a win,” Payson wrote.

Shea McGrath ’27, who helped develop the program, emphasized the work that went into it in an email to the Orient, explaining how the team spoke to representatives from other colleges with bike sharing programs. The Office of Communications, Facilities Management and the Maker Space also played a role in helping get the program started.

Although this year’s program is more so a trial run, Payson expressed hope for the future of the Bowdoin Bike Share Program.

“We’ve heard a lot of enthusiasm from the campus community, which is exciting. We are running this as a pilot program, with only five bicycles in circulation, so we will see how it goes this year and reassess after that,” Payson wrote.

McGrath emphasized Payson’s sentiment.

“While the bikes will only be in circulation until Thanksgiving break, we are hoping this short pilot run goes well and that the bikes will come back out in March once things are warmer,” McGrath wrote.