The announcement in late December that the Community Bicycle Network’s BikeShare program would be closing up forever this season did not come as a surprise. The group had already warned of financial troubles earlier in the year.

BikeShare was a lending system that allowed riders to pick up their wheels at one of 15 downtown hubs and drop them off at another. The bikes were clearly recognizable by their bright yellow colour and quirky names. BikeShare had two hubs on campus: one at the SAC building and another next to OPIRG, off Spadina Circle.

Since a successful student levy referendum in 2004, BikeShare received an annual SAC levy of around $17,000. With this money came the stipulation that funding would be used to add additional hubs and bikes to the St.George campus, explained Carlene Thatcher-Martin, the brains behind BikeChain, a student-run cycle shop in the basement of the International Student Centre.

According to SAC general manager Rick Telfer, SAC has received no official confirmation that the program has ended, despite the announcement in late December.

Sherri Byer, a member of the CBN advisory board, said that the group is in negotiations with a third party and may reopen the program in a modified form.

Byer said BikeShare’s fate is unclear at this point, and the group has released no further information.

Thatcher-Martin is not impressed with BikeShare’s tight lips about its future. “The public has a right to know what’s going on, especially since a lot of people really care about BikeShare. If they knew what was going on, they might step up and do something about it.”

Aubrey Iwaniw, the environmental affairs officer at UTM, was disappointed to hear the program had been cut. Her bike program at UTM, also named Bikeshare, was modeled after the CBM program. Iwaniw said that her program’s success at UTM spurred the city of Mississauga to follow suit with its own bike-lending scheme.

“[It was] a great way for all levels of the economic spectrum to get around the city,” she exclaimed.

For her part, Iwaniw thinks the city should give financial support to BikeChain. In the past, mayor David Miller served as a community advisor to the group, and CBN received a funding award from the city last year.

This year’s warm winter lengthened the cycling season, making proper funding for bike projects on campus even more important according to BikeChain’s Thatcher-Martin.

“We had start-up funds and initial enthusiasm, but we’re coming to the end of [this money] and we’re having trouble finding new money.”

Jenny Greenop, BikeChain’s current coordinator, elaborates on this. “This is a general trend in environmental ideas: favoring short-term funds for shiny projects, which lack followup funding.” She speculated that BikeChain could grow to fill BikeShare’s shoes.

BikeChain attempted its own levy hike bid this fall, but the referendum motion failed due to poor voter turnout. The group aims to hold another referendum on a levy increase this term, coinciding with elections for SAC.