Original article [1] published in The Daily Tarheel [2] City Section, 7/13/06

By: Tom Hartwell, Staff Writer

A grassroots recycling program is working to put a fleet of renovated bicycles on Chapel Hill and Carrboro streets for public use as early as September.

Chris Richmond, a volunteer who helped spearhead the program - which he described as a library system for community transportation - said he hopes it will turn Chapel Hill into the cycling capital of the South.

"I think it's going to be a great model," he said. "We're trying to get it up and running by Sept. 6, but we've got a long way to go."

What is known in other cities as a yellow-bike program is being called Chapel Hill's "Blue Bike" program by virtue of the renovated cycles, painted Tar Heel blue.

By presenting a membership card at hubs around Chapel Hill and Carrboro and on UNC's campus, a person will be able to use one of the bikes for up to 24 hours.

Membership in the program will cost $10 annually.

Two Chapel Hill businesses, the Skylight Exchange and 3 Cups, already have signed on as hubs for the program, where members could pick up or drop off blue bicycles by presenting their membership card.

"It certainly can't hurt business," said Dennis Gavin, owner of the Skylight Exchange. "I think it's a great concept."

Just as libraries hand out fines for overdue books, bikes not returned within 24 hours would draw a fine of $10 per day late.

At its last meeting June 27, the Chapel Hill bicycle and pedestrian advisory board voted to recommend that the Town Council fund the startup and provide a budget of $15,000.

"Compared to, say, our bus budget, that's a drop in the bucket," said Brian Decker, advisory board chairman.

The program was conceived and is being coordinated by Students United for a Responsible Global Environment, a UNC activism group founded in 1998.

Dennis Markatos-Soriano, the director of the group, said the Blue Bike program will start out with 30 bikes and hopefully move toward 100.

The bikes are being constructed by volunteer workers at the ReCYCLEry, a Carrboro co-op dedicated to restoring old bicycles, located at the corner of Old Pittsboro Road and Daffodil Lane.

At a weekly class led by Richmond at the ReCYCLEry, community members learn the basics of bicycle maintenance as they paint and build the fleet.

Carrboro Board of Aldermen member John Herrera, an early supporter of the Blue Bike program, praised SURGE's efforts as well as the ReCYCLEry's.

"The beauty of it is its a grass roots effort," he said. "I think Carrboro welcomes that social entrepreneurship."