New sustainable bike company ‘drops’ at Humber

Sep 28, 2017 | Life, News

By: Joe Amodio

Luca Spinosa, a second-year Humber College student at the North campus, takes the bus to school every day, but finds himself stranded on campus during his longer breaks between classes with no mode of accessible or affordable transportation.

“I have classes with a four-hour break between them. I just find a spot to hang out, there’s not much to do. I’m kind of stuck here,” Spinosa said.

Humber partnered up with the transportation system, Dropbike, which was made available to students on Sept. 28.

Dropbike is a mobile app that posts where a nearby bicycle is and gives users a code to unlock the bike for $1 per hour. When your hour is over, take a picture of the bike. The app, using its GPS, tracks the location for the next user.

Roma Malik, Humber’s acting sustainability manager, believes Dropbike will benefit a majority of Humber students.

“A lot of students have a single occupant vehicle and it’s very normal to not be able to find parking, especially at the North campus,” she said. “We wanted to have an easy and affordable way for students to bike around campus, that’s one of the biggest driving factors to get the bike share program, but also because the price was so attractive.”

Students have supported the program, despite it being in its early stages.

“We’re getting so much interest from the student body about Dropbike, so clearly we’ve made the right decision.”

Dropbike has been implemented by Ryerson University, the University of Toronto and now Humber. In addition to the obvious advantages the program offers, Dropbike has hired local students as part of their on-the-ground operations team.

“When it comes to colleges and universities in Ontario we have a tremendous responsibility to find more sustainable and innovative ways to address this growing need,” Malik said.

With the introduction to Dropbike, students like Spinosa have the option to venture off campus.

“I haven’t even been able to see what’s in the area so I’ll probably take a bike and check it out, just to get away from the school for a bit between classes,” Spinosa said.