After the hypothetical survey ran for a couple of weeks, the team realised they would need to buy some bikes to start a fleet for the students and staff at Massey to actually try out. For funds the team turned to Pukeahu ki Tua's contestable fund to apply for funding. They got it!

The proposal
There is both a need and a desire to introduce a fleet of bikes onto the Wellington campus. We propose to invest in two trial bikes (one standard bike and one electric assist) with helmets, racks and panniers for carrying items. The bikes will be piloted on the Wellington campus and will be available to hire for free from 7:00am to 8:00pm as they will be securely stored and managed at the Massey University Gym.
We are seeking $5000 of seed funding for the initial trial of this project that aims to help students and staff to travel more efficiently, collect supplies and contribute to Massey University’s Carbon Management Plan. From the pilot evaluation, we will review the sustainability of the project, and hope to increase the fleet of the bikes and share lessons with other Massey campuses.

The verdict
The judges of the contestable fund agreed to fund Bikes at Massey for $5,000! Their comments about the project and how they want to see the money going towards the growth of the Massey bike fleet:
 
This is an excellent pilot project — we would like to see a report at the end that talks about how this might be scaled across the University and how this would be funded. There was some concern that $5000 would be sufficient to act as a springboard for other funders to engage in this idea. Clearly stating how the 'hire fee' might help fund a larger project and be part of the business plan is essential.

Next steps from here
The Bikes @ Massey team meet on Friday last week to discuss how to allocate the funds to use and how to execute the judges feedback. Next steps:

• Buy either 2 electric assisted bikes or 1 electric assist and 1 peddle power
• Buy helmets, bike accessories inc. panniers, mud guards, lights
• Look into having high vis vests for bikers
• Set up a system at the gym for people to hire bikes out and T's and C's
• Leave it as a free hire for this year, but gather as much data from bike users to inform growing the fleet and if charging for hire is a good idea
• Look into painting the bikes Massey blue with vinyl sticker decal detailing safety information and contact info
• Look into insurance around the bikes

The team is also looking into a new bike sharing system called MT Share to see if there is a potential collaboration to increase the amount of bike available on campus.

Following their first survey the Bikes at Massey team has created plans to get students and staff to trace their hypothetical bike usage.

They'll be trailing gathering the data via a google form. Encouraged to keep the form open on their computer or phone, people will input their hypothetical bike use each time they need a bike. This is a new way of gathering feedback for the whole team and Campus Co-Lab — we are excited to see how successful it will be!

The form will be sent out early on Monday morning to the 70 people who said they'd be interested in being kept in the loop. 

While our Creative Director, Marie, was in Christchurch for another project she checked out UCSA's bikes. She reports she was throughly impressed with the style of the bikes and got stepped through the process a student would go through to hire out a bike.

• ​To hire out the bikes students must fill out a form detailing information about themselves, which then gets filed into a folder which is kept for the academic year. The student then leaves their student ID with the reception.
• The biker then gets a helmet and a key for a bike chained up outside. 
• The bikes have a tagged number and a bike lock, which the user takes with them. They then can use the bike as long as they return it by 5pm, otherwise they may risk loosing the ability to hire the bikes.

Main takeaways:

• Bikes are colourful and stylish — which differentiate them from other bikes, also look cool to use.
• It is great that the lock that you unlock the bike with can also be taken with you
• Having them sit outside means that the bike seats get wet — if it possible to have cover it would be ideal, especially as it rains in Wellington

The Bikes at Massey team have been exploring different models of bike sharing in New Zealand. So far they have come across two models that could be adopted by Massey for the students:

1. UCSA borrow-a-bike
With a fleet of 10 bikes the students' association at the University of Canterbury have a system to allow students come borrow bikes from them for the day until 5pm. The main takings from discussions with UCSA is:

• Students use the bikes to get between the two campuses to get to and from lectures, or head home for lunch.
• They would buy the same bike again, as the bike needs to be robust.
• They won’t let the bikes be taken home at night for fear of damage or theft.
• There is no charge for the usage of the bikes.
• Bikes getting stolen are a big problem on campuses, which means you don’t want anything fancy – ugly and sturdy.
• They started with recycled bikes, but the maintenance required to keep them running was too intense. Instead they purchased the new bikes to bring down maintenance costs.
• They have a fleet of 10 bikes, but ideally 15 would be great as often several are out of action at once (for 14,000 students on their campus).
• $300 worth of maintenance a month done on the bikes.
• Batch maintenance is done to keep down costs.
  

• Students can hire the bikes between 8.30 to 4.30pm mon – Fri  no overnight or weekend hire
  
• They complete the a form &  leave their student ID cards with USCA until they return with their helmet & key.
  
• They are so popular some days the same bike goes in & out 3 times.
  

2. Next bikes (bike sharing system, use in Christchurch & Auckland)
This is a bike sharing system where there is scalability of technology for the system depending on the budget of the provider. The renting by the bike users would be done via Next bike app or phone centres, which will allow students to unlock bikes from certain locations on the campus. 
Main takings from Next Bike:

• Could use a sponsor to fund the bikes (have their branding on the bikes)
• There is a rental agreement between the user and Next Bike which will, depending on who is doing maintenance, will cover all parties.
  
• Because our campus and fleet is small we would most likely be in charge of maintaining the bikes.
  
• Helmets are said to be sanitised by the sun (UV) and the rain. Chained up with bike, also there can be disinfectant spray
  
• They suggested to have 2 rental stations, with 6 slots, on Massey's campus with 4 bikes on each.
  
• With this system you can have a free riding periods — was suggested for Massey's system 2hrs free would be best as this will foster shorter trips, the bikes will then get used by more people.
  

Next steps for Bikes at Massey
Next the project participants will be sending out a survey to students in the first week of semester break to gather data on how will the bikes be used, what for, what height the riders will be, and if Massey students are interested in seeing this implemented on the campus.