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Unchained melody

University of South Florida students will get free rein of donated bicycles around campus as part of a senior-level community service class project.

By STEPHANIE HAYES
Published March 6, 2005

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA - The bicycles that communications professor Michael LeVan's students wheeled out Tuesday aren't exactly pretty. That's the point.

"It's all about tacky visibility," said University of South Florida senior Sarah Wright, 22, as she showed off the first bunch of what students are calling "bull-cycles."

Think of them as anti-showroom models - donated, rehabilitated and absolutely free.

It was the first day of realization for LeVan's yellow bike project, a grass roots version of projects tried in many U.S. cities and colleges to varying degrees of success. The idea is to place unchained bikes around campus for students to ride and leave for the next person in need of a lift.

Some of the bikes are rickety, with sinking tires. They range in shade from dayglow Hi-Liter to pastel, Post-It-Note yellow. The paint is splotchy on some bikes, thick on others.

They're not meant for the Tour de France. LeVan hopes the bull-cycles will serve simpler purposes - keep students on campus and impart lessons on recycling and community involvement.

"Most people, if they're here at lunch time, they'll say, "I'd rather drive off-campus than go to the Marshall Center,' because they don't want to walk around," said LeVan, 36. "You can ride a bike there in two minutes."

The project is a turning point for LeVan's senior-level community service class, "Communication, Culture and Community," which has proved frustrating before. In the past, students offered time at community organizations, but LeVan found at the end of the semester children and seniors suddenly lost familiar volunteers.

"I messed with other ideas, doing group projects for some of the organizations," LeVan said. "I just thought that this semester I'd try something different that the whole class could work on together."

Enter the yellow bike project, which has been hit or miss in other settings. Eckerd College's year-old yellow bike program has been a hit so far, though the school pays for new bikes instead of using discards.

A program in Decatur, Ga., allows people to "adopt" yellow bikes for a small fee. Portland's yellow bike project evolved into a program that provides personal bikes to low-income adults, after many yellow bikes were stolen and damaged.

The Tampa Downtown Partnership organized the "orangecycles" program in 1997, releasing bikes donated by the Tampa Police Department, painted safety orange. Most of the bikes vanished, ending the program.

"It's the type of program that someone really has to stay on top of and stay commited to," said Karen Kress, the partnership's director of transportation. Kress said the partnership is open to giving the program another shot.

"There are going to be so many changes to downtown with all the residents moving in, I could see that this program might work again in the future," Kress said.

LeVan and the class have braced for the possibility of theft. "I hope the bikes don't get stolen," said student Georgia Windham, 22.

Then again, the reasoning goes, who would want to go to the trouble?

"They are meant to look kind of ugly so that people won't steal them," Windham said.

By the end of the semester, LeVan's class hopes to have released 25 bikes.

Even if they end up in garages or on the bottom of ponds, LeVan feels the project is worthwhile. Some students, such as 21-year-old Bea Pohl, would like to keep it going even after the class is over.

"I love it," Pohl said. "I would definitely head (the program).

It's the kind of energy LeVan likes to see.

"These kinds of lessons stick with these students when they're a little more settled into some neighborhood," he said. "They know that a community can be strong and successful if people are willing to put in some effort."

To donate bicycles, parts, paint, money or services, call Gary Napert at (813) 760-2271 or Pohl at (813) 453-3378. Students will pick up the items.

- Stephanie Hayes can be reached at 813 269-5303 or shayes@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 5, 2005, 08:12:04]