DeKALB | NIU Parking Services does more for students than help with their car and issue parking permits and tickets – it offers an environmentally-friendly method of travel.

Parking Services offers NIU students, staff and faculty a free program called Borrow-a-Bike. Those affiliated with NIU can rent a bike, an Atlas Sun cruiser, along with a helmet and a bike lock. The program functions on a first come, first serve basis because the program only has 115 bikes to offer, said Parking Services Director Kristin Mommsen.

“The Borrow-a-Bike program is a free method of alternative transportation that Campus Parking Services is happy to offer students, faculty and staff,” Mommsen said in an email. “Biking helps reduce traffic congestion on campus, is environmentally friendly, provides health benefits and reduces the costs associated with wear and tear on the roadways and parking lots.”

The program started off in 2007 and has since grown in size and popularity, Mommsen said.

Toward the end of a semester – fall, spring or summer – Borrow-a-Bike has an inventory and maintenance period during which bikes can not be rented or renewed.

Currently, bikes cannot be rented or renewed until Sept. 6. On that day, according to the Parking Services website, bikes will be available for rental again, though renewals are not guaranteed. Bikes are only available for one semester rental, and on Dec. 5, all bikes must be returned. Those who do not turn in bikes by that date will face late charges.

If a bike is returned late, there is a $5 late fee for each day that it is held past its due date. If any of the equipment given to the student is lost, damaged or stolen, he or she will be expected to pay for losses plus a 10-day late fee.

“[Borrow-a-Bike] is really convenient,” said Lauren Iverson, sophomore business administration and paralegal studies major. “My parents bought me a bike that turned out to be completely worthless, and this was a good back-up. It is a very ugly yellow, but I can deal with that.”

Mike Nichols, junior visual communications major, also finds his rental bike to be more useful than pleasing to the eye.

“The bikes are not the prettiest, and they are not the greatest, but they are a lot faster than walking,” he said.