1

Abstract

Our project deals with the issue of there not being more efficient ways of transportation
to and from academic buildings, plus other places on campus. To deal with the issues that
involve congestion on campus, our group have presented the use of rental bicycles on campus,
therefore students can deal with less of a congestion of cars on campus and get to where you
need to be on time. There would be many benefits for the students, professors and also other
people who are on campus and is willing to pay for their own personal service. There would be
much results as well, but our group will present them during our presentation. Last, but not least
the bicycle program will also be funded by effecting students financial aid. The financial aid
will be figured into the students general fees in which will not drastically effect the pricing
within the fees category for students.

As most of the classes offered on UNC Charlottes campus are either an hour and 15
minutes long or two hours and forty five minutes long, it often leaves a block of 15 minutes in
between those courses. This university currently sits on 1000 wooded acres, has approximately
85 buildings, and is the largest institution of higher education in the Charlotte area. Although
many academic buildings are centrally located on campus, some buildings, those primarily used
for engineering students especially, are much further apart than a 15 minute walk. Given the
location of a students class in relation to the next can make it difficult to arrive on time.

UNC Charlotte currently offers two modes of on-campus transportation: the CATS
Campus Shuttle and SafeRide. Unfortunately, both options can be unreliable, inconvenient, and
time-consuming. They may offer a student with the opportunity to avoid walking but they are not
necessarily a practical method for ensuring that students arrive to their classes promptly. The
campus shuttle runs from 7 A.M. until 10 P.M. Monday through Thursday, and from 7 A.M.
until 6 P.M. on Friday if it is the yellow or green line (route). The red line (route) runs from 6:30
A.M. until 10 P.M. Monday through Thursday, and from 6:30 A.M. until 6 P.M. on Friday. Since
the running times are limited, and completely excludes weekend hours, this can result in safety
hazards and a lengthy commute for any student needing or desiring to travel around campus
outside of those designated times. In addition, the Campus Shuttle in particular can be unreliable
because day-time traffic is often congested during class transitions. The shuttle can also be
extremely time-consuming. What may be a relatively short walk can easily be a much longer bus
ride, even void of traffic. SafeRide was originally designed for students for students who are not
able-bodied. It provides access Monday through Friday, from 7:30 A.M. until 5:30 P.M. to
students who are pre-registered and have an impairment that restricts their mobility. It is also
available to students who have temporary need, such as a recent surgery or a lower limb injury.

SafeRide is completely off-limits to all other students during those times. It is however, open to
all students from 6 P.M. until 2 A.M. every evening. Again, the need to travel outside of those
hours elicits concerns about sustaining safety. Much more so than the campus shuttles,
SafeRide Evening, runs three vans at once and each of them is on a fixed route that resets
every hour. Not only can the wait time be excessively long, but the ride alone can be just as
lengthy.

The plan that we propose is to have bike rental stations with bike on and around the
campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Our plan will start off by having several
stations in convenient locations by the different academic building on campus, such as
Woodward & Storrs. The bike rental will be a part of one of the perks that the campus carries to
help students with transportation and convenience on campus. You will be able to go up to the
bike station scan your student identification card, take a bicycle, ride across campus, scan your id
at another station and put the bicycle back. What we are trying to achieve with this is increasing
convenience for student who are trying to go across campus, whether it be to get to their next
class or to just ride around. This will also help decrease the current stress that students already
have, an example would be your previous class ran a little late, now you have only ten minutes to
go from Woodward to Storrs, you dont have to run because you can just grab a bicycle really
quick and get there in 5 minutes. Taking a bicycle beats walking as it will take less time to go to
wherever you need to go on campus, it is more fun for students, doesnt burn energy (ecofriendly), and also promoted physical fitness for students. An opposition to the plan would be
that there arent any bicycle lanes within the immediate area of the academic building and that
can cause collisions between people walking and riding. That can be solves as there will be
general routes for the cyclists to use.

Here are some of the benefits with our bicycle proposal:

Improved transportation benefits for UNCC students/staff

Cheap implementation

Eco-friendly

Makes campus more accessible

Added perk to the school

Makes more students want to come to UNCC

Reduce vehicle traffic

Get to class quicker

Without Biking

Here is the basic schedule for our plan:

1. Loan 6 months to 1 year to implementation date

With Biking

2. Permits/licenses/permission etc. 6 months to 1 year prior to implementation date

3. Funding - 6 months prior to first implementation semester

4. Bike Rental station installs 6 months prior to first semester implemented

5. Bike purchases - 6 months prior to first semester implemented

6. Department setup 6 months prior to first semester implementation

For the costs of this proposal a bicycle will cost about $500 and we plan to have 5
bicycles for each station, so that will be $2,500 per each station. There will be seven bike stations
making the total now $17,500, and the station itself will cost $1,200, $8,400 for seven stations
and the total is $25,900. There will be one or two people who will take any extra bikes back to a
station that has room for it, in case a student tries to go across campus and the station doesnt
have any space. That person will be paid minimum wage through a work student, so we will
receive money from financial aid to pay the one or two students. We will also set up a small
department who will oversee the bike stations, there will be a manager plus a secretary to
oversee the daily operation of the station and make help maintain expenses, etc. The money to
pay for the permits and set up the stations with the bicycles will come from a small loan of
$40,000. The money to pay the workers will come from school funding and the excess money in
which we plan to raise tuition. We propose to raise tuition by $2 which will bring in $54,400
with the current amount of 27,200 students at least, the first set of money will pay for the loans

with left overs funding the department. From there the next sets of payments will help pay for all
office expenses, worker expenses, and future growth of the bike stations. Any extra money
overall will go directly to the school for their own use, such as if we have an extra $1,000 it will
be no problem handing it over to make the campus a better place. The manager will be paid
$30,000 a year working Monday through Friday with the office worker being paid $7 thousand
for being part time.

The management chain will consist of the manager of the department, who will oversee
the assistant/office worker. The manager will also oversee the one or two students who will valet
the extra bikes to the stations with open spots. The university main offices/department or
whomever is in charge of transportation systems will oversee the manager of the bicycle
department.

The progress and success of the bicycle rental service will be determined by the manager
of the department. He or she will find out customer satisfaction through created surveys and
word of mouth through the valets. The department will make about $7,000 in profit after all
expenses of supplies, workers pay, etc. $3,500 profit every semester upon student fees being
paid, every six months. All financial records will be done by the manager via excel and any other
means to calculate expenses. The expenses are not that complicated in which an accountant will
be needed.

The manager will have to have a clean record in order to be able to work on the
universitys campus as well as be around students. He or she will preferable have management

skills, be good with accounting, be able to communicate and work with others. The office worker
will be able to communicate with others, have some office work experience, and preferable be
able to speak Spanish. Both will be able to use computers and Microsoft office, as well as be able
to learn any new technology that will be integrated to use later on. Turnover will be low, the only
thing affecting the percentage is the change in student from the work study program, eventually
upon expansion of the department there will be permanent hires.
For the electronic portion we had the idea of creating a website to describe in-depth of the
creation of the bike rental stations on campus, for the convenience of students living on campus
and commuting long distances within campus grounds. Our website would have also included
the pricing if you are not a student of UNCC, and also how the pricing would be implemented
into the tuition and fees if you are a student. When the value of using the bicycles are used within
the tuition and fees, students have less of a worry because there are general fees in which can be
the same, but the total tuition would increase by a total of two dollars to implement the pricing of
the bicycle program. This should not affect the students financial situation because there are
also other fees the school charges that students are sometimes unaware of. We would have liked
for this website to be very organized and most importantly efficient and convenient for each and
every student and customers. The website would be www.uncc.edu/ninerbicycling.

Works Cited
1) 60+ Benefits (Advantages) of Bicycling." 60 Benefits of Bike Commuting & Recreational
Bicycling. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
2) "CATS Campus Shuttle." Parking Services. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
3) "SafeRide." Parking Services. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
4) "Grantt Chart." N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
<http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kn.pacbell.com%2Fwired%2Fgrants>.