Campus Bike Week rolls out resources for bikers

The seventh annual Campus Bike Week, which promotes bike safety and resources at Pitt, kicked off earlier this week. 

Pitt partnered with Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University, Chatham University, BikePGH and POGOH to hold events throughout the week including bike fairs, group rides, giveaways and classes. The goal of Campus Bike Week is to share bike safety tips and resources, like the Pittsburgh bikesharing service POGOH.  

Throughout the week, the Pitt Bike Cave, a student-run DIY repair shop located by Posvar Hall, hosted Confident City Cycling Classes and served as a meeting point for group rides. Nick Goodfellow, sustainability manager of Pitt Sustainability, described it as the “center of biking culture on campus.”

“The Pitt Bike Cave staff are meeting people where they are on an hourly basis to help them fix and maintain bikes, as well as lead social group rides and attend other community-building events,” Goodfellow said.

Another on-campus resource for students is the POGOH bikes, which students can ride free of charge in 30-minute increments. There are also four other payment plans which include an annual plan, a monthly plan, their mobility justice program and single-ride payments. 

Goodfellow says students should take advantage of resources like POGOH since Pitt is making them free and accessible. 

“We can reduce so many barriers to transportation by championing these amenities for commuters at no cost to them,” said Goodfellow. “Our educational programs also offer a way for folks who have no experience with biking or who didn’t grow up biking a way to learn how to ride on city streets.”

Pitt Sustainability set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030. Commuting emissions have decreased by 65.4% since 2019 in part due to increased use of shared and active commuting modes like biking, scooters and public transit according to Goodfellow. 

“We measure this through a Commuter and Transportation survey [every three years], the last of which we conducted in 2022,” Goodfellow said. “The 2022 Commuter and Transportation Survey revealed that half of the campus gets to and from Pitt using an active or shared commuting mode like biking, taking the bus or walking.” 

The next Commuter and Transportation survey is currently on hold.

Student ridership has an immense impact on campus, according to Erin Potts, the director of marketing and community outreach for POGOH.

“Many of our top riders [are] University of Pittsburgh students,” said Potts. 

Jim Karas, a senior social work major, said he has had “great experiences” with the rideshare stations. 

“I use them to go to and from class from South Oakland every day,” said Karas. “There’s a station right by my apartment, and it cuts my travel time in half.” 

Erica Hill, a junior mechanical engineering major, uses POGOH “mainly for fun” with her friends. 

“We just started off just riding around campus, like Posvar and everything, and then somehow ended up curating our own perfect POGOH route,” Hill said. “Even if we don’t ride that route, we’re just having fun going into parking garages and then riding down the spirals full speed.”

Colin McCague, a junior microbiology major, said he had a “generally positive experience” with POGOH. 

“For the most part I use them for fun around Schenley Park,” McCague said. “But they can also be convenient to get to places when I am in a jam.”

McCague said his only complaint is that POGOH needs to add more stations. 

“The one problematic thing about them is that often during busy daytime hours certain stations are all out of POGOHs,” said McCague. “So, they’re less reliable during this period.” 

Karas believes POGOH needs more electric bikes as “the hill really kills me on the regular [bikes].” 

There are currently 60 POGOH stations and 600 bikes throughout the City of Pittsburgh, with e-bikes making up 80% of their current fleet according to Potts. To combat these issues, Potts said POGOH is introducing 47 new stations across Pittsburgh in their “phase three expansion.” 

“[There’s] such a high demand for e-bikes in our network, [but] we still want people to have access to the traditional pedal bikes, but they are ridden significantly less and tend to be more [for the] folks who want to get a little more of a workout,” Potts said.

This article has been updated to reflect the status of the next Commuter and Transportation survey.