Full-time graduate students at McMaster are now eligible for a discounted Hamilton Bike Share pass, in what a group of student advocates are calling a win for sustainability, accessibility and affordability.
Full-time undergraduate students have been eligible for the discount since September, following a referendum that saw approximately 95 per cent of students vote to have the discounted annual pass included in their annual student fees.
From left: Tina Liu, Sarah Gonder, Paris Liu and Ofure Itua are members of McMaster Students for Bike Share, a group that has successfully advocated for full-time undergraduate and graduate students to get a discounted Hamilton Bike Share annual membership as part of their student fees. (Georgia Kirkos, McMaster University)
Student group McMaster Students for Bike Share, which started the petition that led to that referendum, worked with the Graduate Student Union this time round to incorporate the bike pass as part of graduate student school fees.
They've also taken the fight for bike sharing beyond the university, to make sure the program continues in Hamilton.
This year, "City Council was considering discontinuing funding for bike share as a whole, not just at McMaster," says engineering student and McMaster Students for Bike Share co-founder Paris Liu.
The group put together student testimonials, including 18 videos on why the bike sharing program matters.
"Our team delegated to Council, and then with the support of the larger Hamilton community, City Council voted unanimously 13-0 to continue funding bike share," Liu says.
McMaster's is the lowest-cost bike share pass at a Canadian university, the students say.
"In our research, 22 per cent of post-secondary students in the GTHA didn't have a driver's licence. So having public transportation is really important," says recent McMaster graduate Sarah Gonder. "It helps everybody get home safer, faster and more affordably."
The change in bike use is evident, the students say.
"Before, rarely any students were on the road, and if so, they were on their own bikes," Liu says.
"But now it's like I have to worry about whether there's going to be enough bikes at the rack for me to ride, which is a good problem to have it's been really exciting to see the results of all of our hard work, every single day."
Student Ofure Itua helped advocate for the undergraduate pass when she was an undergrad. Now a graduate student, she helped the push for the graduate pass.
"It's really cool knowing that after I graduate, I can look back and be like, I was part of something so much bigger than myself,' " Itua said.
"I got to work on it with extremely passionate people that cared about making bike share more equitable and accessible for others."
There's a Bike Share hub in front of Itua's house, and she can see it from her window.
"Every time someone comes and takes it, it just brings me an inexplicable amount of joy," she said. "I can't be having a bad day, because there's always going to be someone on a bike."
The McMaster Bike Share team also includes: David Landry, Kenneth Chen, Taskin Eera, Xin Law-Gallagher and Brett Sicard. Sydney Watson-Leung from OPIRG provided support.
