Graduate students at Rice Village complex agree to bring no cars

Bikes a bonus for Rice graduate students
Students at Rice Village complex agree to bring no cars

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

Rice University’s new graduate student apartments in the Rice Village have the capacity to accommodate hundreds of people.

But cars … well, not so many.

	JEFF FITLOW
	Rice graduate students claim their new bicycles at the Rice Village Apartments on Thursday. From left, Jingyi Xue, Rice Director of  Sustainability Richard Johnson, Yanli Chen, Rice Graduate Housing  Manager Abeer Ali Mustafa, Bicycle World’s Wesley Howes and Justin Zaiser and Ryan Guerra, Navneet Aggarwal, Ananya Ray and Bruno Nardelli. Students agree not to register cars with Rice for a year in return for the bikes.

With 100 parking spaces available at the 137-unit Rice Village Apartments, the university has found a unique way to limit the number of motor vehicles students will bring to their new digs in the Village. Rice buys them bicycles.

Thirty-five Giant Boulder bikes arrived at the apartments Thursday for residents who have signed a housing agreement for a minimum of 12 months and agree not to register a motor vehicle with Rice for a year.

The 24-speed, all-purpose bikes are not loaners — they become the students’ property. They were purchased at Bicycle World and Fitness on Times Boulevard, just a few blocks away from the complex, and a crew from the store set up, tested and delivered the fleet.

Three of the bikes will be set aside as loaners, so even students who have cars can take them for a spin.

Students who bring their own bikes to campus or receive them through the program may keep them in a dedicated storage room at the apartment complex.

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The program is the brainchild of Mark Ditman, Rice’s associate vice president for housing and dining, who modeled it on similar initiatives at other campuses that encourage green thinking. The decision to build fewer parking spaces was by design, as the bike giveaway and the university’s shuttle service to campus and to shopping hot spots eliminate the need for many students to have cars.

“I had a car at UTEP (the University of Texas at El Paso), but it was a hassle and I got rid of it,” said Andres Rodela, a first-year graduate student in materials science and the first to pick up his new vehicle. “This is the first bike I’ve had in a long time, and it’ll be great for getting around.”

“Some students said, ‘What if I take my car home and unregister it?’ And we told them once they have proof they’ve taken it home, they can sign up,” said Abeer Ali Mustafa, Rice’s graduate housing manager. “Some are going to do that this summer and then join the bike program. It’s been very well received.”

Mustafa said the program will continue for residents of the new building, which is 42 percent occupied, and may be expanded to the university’s other graduate residences as well. It will also help Rice earn certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards program for the building’s environmentally conscious design and maintenance.

In the meantime, Mustafa is getting into the spirit. “I learned how to ride again,” she said. “I go from my office (at the new complex) to campus for a lot of meetings, so now I take my bike.”