Gotcha: The Bikes Are Not So Simple

Lately, I have seen a lot of people riding the Gotcha bikes all over campus to get to and from class. I am kinda perturbed, because I keep seeing the damn bikes all over campus and not at a Sign-out hub. Obviously it’s hard for people to understand that the bikes need to be returned to a hub in between classes and not parked outside of the class’ building or a dormitory.
I actually had the pleasure of using one myself. It was pretty straight-forward, I just did not understand how to get the bike from the hub. I kept pulling at the bike and it would not move for anything in the world. Moments later I noticed the directions telling me to move the rod from the bike’s wheel and place it into the basket.
I was finally ready to roll out. I admit it was very refreshing, it’s been years since I have actually rode a bike, which the experience resembled. For some reason that’s all I could think about while pedaling across campus with the evening breeze blowing through my hair. The sun was setting and it was really perfect.
Last week, operations manager for Gotcha, James Newkirk was doing a basic operations patrol. He explained to me, “We want to make it useful for the university … if the university starts seeing bikes piled up in front of their front doors, then it’s going to be a problem … we want to encourage the students to keep the bikes at the hub.” He is completely right! If we can’t put the bikes where they go, then they are more than likely to take the bikes away from us.
This is why people say we can’t have anything good. Someone always finds a way to make things more complicated. I hear a lot of people complaining about how Louisiana State University’s subscription is cheaper for students than ours. What they don’t know is LSU actually paid for half the subscription for students upon adding the bikes to their campus. Now that’s tea. Attention!! Students, faculty, and staff please use the bikes the right way so we can continue to have new things here and grow as a campus.