Drake University is partnering with a local organization to provide Drake students a new and sustainable way to travel around Des Moines.
The Street Collective is a nonprofit organization based in downtown Des Moines that is focused on making biking more accessible, affordable and enjoyable. The Street Collective runs Des Moines’ BCycle system, a bike-sharing program that allows users to rent both traditional and electric bikes. Through the new partnership, Drake students and staff are able to purchase an annual pass to the program for $20, as opposed to the $150 cost for non-Drake-affiliated users.
“[Drake was] excited about making it easier for students to be less reliant on needing a car to get where they need to go,” said Jeremy Lewis, executive director of The Street Collective. “They were interested in partnering and creating a discounted pass to get students and staff limited rides for much less, much more affordable than our typical annual pass.”
Four BCycle stations are located near Drake’s campus: 30th Street and Carpenter Avenue near the Sprout Garden, 33rd Street and Forest Avenue across from Habanero’s, 27th Street and Forest Avenue by the Knapp Center and 24th Street and University Avenue across the street from Lucky Horse Beer and Burgers. Lewis hopes the discount will encourage students to take advantage of these stations.
“This is a low-risk way for people to be introduced to the system, to try the system and figure out how it can work in their lives,” Lewis said. “In my opinion, biking is way more fun than driving, and it’s way faster than walking. Having bikes systematically, strategically located around campus provides all that.”
There are thirty BCycle stations across the Des Moines metropolitan area. Most of the stations are concentrated in downtown Des Moines, but they also extend to West Des Moines, Windsor Heights and Clive. Drake Sustainability Coordinator Hannah Remke said she doesn’t see students checking out a bike to get to class due to the small size of campus, but believes students could use the program to get to a variety of places in the Des Moines area.
“I see it more as you want to bike to Gray’s Lake for a day. There’s a station there, you could easily get to it from Gray’s Lake,” Remke said. “Or there are bike trails where you could go to the downtown East Village shops more as a way to get off campus. If you have an internship or a place you are working within a mile radius of campus, [that’s] super easy.”
The annual pass gives users unlimited 30-minute bike rides on either the traditional or electric bikes. After 30 minutes, users pay by the minute to ride. The e-bikes cost $0.30 per minute and the traditional bikes cost $0.05 per minute. However, Remke doesn’t see the 30-minute limit as restrictive due to the proximity of stations to each other in Des Moines.
“If I’m close to 30 minutes, I just check it in and check it out, “ Remke said. “[There’s] no limit on the turnaround, so I’ve used the bike for like a three hour period of time.”
Around a third of The Street Collective’s around 200-bike fleet are e-bikes. E-bikes use pedal-assist technology to make riding the bike easier and faster.
“The e-bikes, the pedal assist, it’s a night and day difference,” Remke said. “It’s super easy to get to and from, and you’re not breaking a sweat or anything. I use it now to commute or just hop on if I need to get somewhere faster, but I’m not going to show up a sweaty mess compared to if I took the regular bike.”
According to Lewis, the e-bikes are more frequently checked out than the traditional bikes.
“Moving forward, electric bikes are the future,” Lewis said. “I would always like to keep what we call these classic bikes available for people, but with the way the demand is, electric bikes are what we’ll be investing in moving forward completely.”
Drake has partnered with The Street Collective in the past, but there has not been an active program since the COVID-19 pandemic. Nate Reagen, Drake’s chief of staff, said he felt it was important to bring this partnership back.
“We want to uphold our role as an anchor institution and make sure we are good stewards to our partners,” Reagen said. “The B-Cycle stations have been historically underutilized, and we have an opportunity to make better use of our Street Collective resources.”
In 2020, the city of Des Moines finished construction on University Avenue in the Dogtown area, which added bike lanes, new sidewalks and more bus stops by reducing driving lanes. The city also plans to remodel Forest Avenue in the near future, according to Lewis.
“As Drake University becomes even more walk and bike-friendly and more students and staff are understanding how this can work in their lives, we can definitely see the system expanding further into Beaverdale or up to the Franklin Library area to connect to the trail system,” Lewis said. “I’m excited that more people are using it and as it continues to grow in interest, in popularity, then we’re definitely interested in growing the system.”
Since last year, The Street Collective has seen increased usage at some of the stations around Drake. Checkouts from the 30th Street and Carpenter Avenue station increased by 90.9%, and checkouts from the 27th Street and Carpenter Avenue station increased by 125%, according to Lewis.
“We have a great city, and it’s beautiful to access on a bike,” Reagen said. “We strive to minimize the cars we have on campus, because really, you can get around a lot of places you need without a car. The B-Cycle partnership makes it even more possible to not have a car on campus and get around locally or just to enjoy the outdoors.”
To access the discount, Drake students and staff can sign up in the BCycle app with their Drake email and use the promo code “bulldogsbike24.”
