NYU working with Times Up!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/nyregion/21bikes.html?ex=1345348800&en=3f42ac93840ca860&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
August 21, 2007
Giving Abandoned Bikes New Life So Students Can Ride
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
Emily Allen, 19, a sophomore at New York University, was surveying the
rows of bicycle racks in a courtyard behind Tisch Hall over the
weekend. Expensive road bikes and mountain bikes were parked there,
but Ms. Allen focused on an old gold-colored bicycle with a rusted
chain.
“This bike has flat tires, which is usually a pretty good sign,” she
said. “I’m going to keep an eye on it.”
At any given time, hundreds of bicycles are likely to be locked up in
buildings or outdoor areas belonging to N.Y.U., and some of them will
never be reclaimed. Instead, they will disintegrate in the elements or
create obstructions in indoor areas until they are removed and thrown
out by maintenance workers.
Now, the abandoned bikes have a rejuvenated future. A few months ago
the university approved a plan for students to work with an
environmental group to recycle those bikes in an effort to encourage
cycling and also lessen the waste created by discarding them.
Last winter Ms. Allen and others submitted a grant proposal to an
N.Y.U. sustainability task force of students, faculty members and
administrators. She said the impetus for the idea came from her love
of bikes and the dismay she felt last winter as she saw the
deterioration of an abandoned bike chained up near the residence hall
where she was living.
“There wasn’t anything I could do about it,” she said. “It was an
eyesore, and it was pretty sad watching this beautiful machine falling
apart.”
In the spring, the school approved a $5,000 grant for the bike
reclamation project. A few weeks ago students began visiting outdoor
courtyards and indoor storerooms and corridors belonging to the
university where bikes are locked up. They attached fliers to bicycle
frames reading “If this bike belongs to you and is not abandoned,
please tear off this flier, and it will not be removed.” They returned
after a two-week deadline identified on the flier to take away bikes.
If bicycles are removed in error, owners can notify the group by
e-mail and retrieve their property.
The collected bicycles are taken to a storefront on East Houston
Street used by Times Up!, an environmental organization that advocates
on behalf of nonpolluting trans****tation. There, volunteer mechanics
repair the bikes, using new parts purchased with the $5,000 grant.
Times Up! will keep half of the recovered bikes and the other half
will be donated in the fall to N.Y.U. freshmen who attend a workshop
on how to care for and fix bikes and how to ride safely in New York.
So far, the group has collected 39 derelict bikes and expects to
collect more in the coming weeks.
“This one project is very successful,” said Jeremy Friedman, a recent
graduate and the administrator for the N.Y.U. sustainability task
force. “It’s going to have a lot of good outcomes, I think, for the
campus.”
Ms. Allen was among several people who gathered recently in the Times
Up! storefront, where dozens of salvaged bikes of all shapes and
colors filled a courtyard in back.
Mark Simpson, 22, a bike store manager from Park Slope, Brooklyn, who
helped organize the bike recovery project before he graduated from
N.Y.U. this year, pointed out the cracked sidewalls, rusted chains and
other mechanical problems that would be fixed. He said the group would
also advise the school on creating a policy to deal with abandoned
bikes, analyze patterns of bike use among students and suggest ideas
to increase that use.
Inside the storefront, Bill DiPaolo, the executive director of Times
Up!, said the project was a natural fit for his group, which has held
bike repair workshops for several years.
“We’re excited that N.Y.U. is looking at the increase of nonpolluting
trans****tation as a positive,” he said.
In the basement, a row of recycled front wheel forks hung from a wall
and plastic crates of bike parts sat near a five-foot metal cabinet
with drawers holding metric wrenches, tire levers and bearings. James
Brown songs blared through speakers.
Marisa McCormick, 28, of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, was laboring over a
tricky caliper brake on the rear wheel of a white Peugeot bicycle,
when Curtis Anderson, 28, from Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, stepped over
to help.
“All these bikes have been sitting out in the weather,” he said.
“They’re corroded, sticky, frozen.” Three mechanics gathered around
the Peugeot, handing one another tools.
“It’s like surgery,” Ms. McCormick said.
After a few more minutes of adjustments, Ms. McCormick spun the rear
wheel of the bike and it hummed smoothly. Mr. Anderson gently squeezed
the brake lever and the wheel came to a quick, sharp stop.
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