The price of gas was a good enough reason for Amanda Gilson, a senior at Colorado State University, to sell her sport utility vehicle and jump on a bike — even if she only gets to ride it every other week.
“You have to let other people use them,” she joked.
Ever since the Fort Collins Bike Library, which offers free bike rentals, opened its doors last spring, it’s been juggling an excess of riders with a shortage of bikes.
“It’s a great program,” said Jeff Morrell, president of Bike Fort Collins. “We just need more volume.”
Anyone with an ID and an e-mail address can borrow a bike for up to a week from two downtown stations. But they have to get in line first.
Since the service opened April 5, the waiting list for a bike on any given Friday, Saturday or Sunday can get up to six people deep. When a bike comes in, it’s usually headed right back out.
“On April 6, we realized we were going to run out of bikes,” Morrell said.
To keep up with the demand, the library bulked up their fleet from an original 20 bikes to 60 bikes. They’re hoping for 200 by next summer. The fleet is mostly made up of bikes that went unclaimed after being recovered by Fort Collins police.
About 600 riders have checked out bikes since the program opened.
For the past couple months, Gilson and her boyfriend, who use bikes to get to class, work and pretty much everywhere else, have been able to score a bike only every other week.
“It’s kind of nice to be in this situation,” Morrell said. “On the other hand, it’s not nice because we have to turn away our customers.”
But the tight supply is good for others.
Because bikes are such a hot item in Fort Collins, some people are willing to take the next step: Fork over some money.
“When they realize we don’t have any free bikes, they go and pay for bikes,” Morrell said.
The city’s bike shops caught wind of the demand and started renting out bikes again, he said.
Dave “DK” Kemp, the city’s bicycle coordinator who helped start the bike library with federal grant money, predicts there will be four more bike stations around Fort Collins by next year, including stations at Colorado State University and various hotels.
So far, only two bikes have been stolen, Morrell said.
The “Hall of Shame,” which lists the names of six people banned from the library, posted in Old Town Square may help deter thefts, but the library doesn’t want to take chances.
As a precaution, it will soon require a credit card imprint to keep better tabs on the bikes.
“That is the only thing that is worrying me,” said Gilson, who doesn’t have a credit card. “I will have to start looking for another mode of transportation.”
Steve Graff: 303-954-1661 or sgraff@denverpost.com
What is a bike library?
The bike library works like a traditional book library although it doesn’t have anything to do with books. The library lends bicycles to residents and visitors of Fort Collins free of charge. Library membership is the only requirement.According to “Top Ten Things to Know About the FC Bike Library”
