St. Thomas students, faculty and staff will no longer have access to discounted annual Nice Ride passes, due to the expiration of a grant last November.
In 2012, students in a conservation geography class wrote a $20,000 grant to make the Nice Ride bike-sharing program more accessible to both on-campus and commuter students. The grant has been successful to the point where all of the money has been used up.
The $20,000, backed by the St. Thomas Campus Sustainability Fund, was used to purchase 666 annual Nice Ride subscriptions. The grant enabled students, faculty and staff to buy annual passes for $10, rather than spending the original amount of $65 or $55 for students.
Geography professor Paul Lorah led the Conservation Geography class that wrote the Nice Ride grant. Lorah said the reason for the grant ending was simply due to funding.
“We didn’t really end the relationship; we loved it,” Lorah said. “We were (Nice Ride’s) number one. They had more passes from St. Thomas than any other organization. Everyone was really happy. We just ran out of money.”
For the 2014 season, people from the St. Thomas community, students, faculty and staff used Nice Ride for over 4,400 separate rides.
The Campus Sustainability Fund allows students to be actively engaged in helping St. Thomas reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2035. For the Nice Ride grant, geography students measured the miles ridden by the St. Thomas community and assessed the carbon savings. Lorah said one of the real benefits of the program was bringing people together.
“The carbon savings were decent,” Lorah said. “I think the real benefit was community building. Students went out in groups. It kept us more active and linked to the neighborhood.”
Students who worked on the project, like alumni Mitchell Schaps, also benefitted academically from the opportunities created by the grant.
“Working with Nice Ride, during the grant and afterwards, helped my academic career immensely,” Schaps said. “I have given over four conference presentations, two of which were competitions where I won first and second place prizes. Working with the Nice Ride data also gave me a great outlet for learning more about using GIS, and what it can do.”
Lorah said a sustainability committee may meet this year about extending the funding for the Nice Ride partnership. Schaps hopes St. Thomas will re-establish the program because of the success it had for both the St. Thomas community and Nice Ride.
“I think it was a mistake not to fund the discounted annual Nice Ride passes again. I would see students use the system every day,” Schaps said. “I definitely think that St. Thomas should re-establish the partnership between the campus and Nice Ride. We were their most successful private business partner.”
The St. Thomas community can still use the three Nice Ride stations near campus and purchase annual Nice Ride passes for the original price. The bike stations are located near the Anderson Parking Facility, the O’Shaughnessy Stadium and on Cleveland Avenue by Cafe 128. Tommie Central is also offering a free bike option on campus this school year which students can rent for up to three days.
Claire Noack can be reached at noac8702@stthomas.edu.