Students buy eco-friendly surrey bike for trial run

By Brooke Bullock     11/11/10 6:00pm

In conjunction with Rice's push for an environmentally friendly campus, students from ENST 302: Rice into the Future have brought a surrey bike to Rice. The students involved in the project are hoping to promote sustainable transportation by introducing surrey bikes to Rice as a replacement for at least some of the golf carts used by Facilities, Engineering and Planning and Housing and Dining. The environmentally friendly golf cart alternative has been peddled around campus for the past two weeks for a trial run. The surrey at Rice is a three-seater, two-pedaler side-by-side tandem bicycle. Each set of pedals has its own set of gears so that the individual pedalers can choose a comfortable speed. The surrey also has headlights and taillights for nighttime visibility and a canopy to protect riders from rain and sun. The surrey will be on campus until Tuesday, while a group of students from ENST 302 studies how much energy will be saved by using it. Lovett College senior Alicia Hernandez, who is a member of the group, said the goal of their research is to have surreys permanently on campus soon.

Lovett senior Drew Berger said he first got the idea of bringing a surrey to campus after having lunch with FE&P Manager of Communications Susann Glenn and Director of Sustainability Richard Johnson. Berger said he thought golf carts were wasteful and power-sucking vehicles, so he started to look online for other options. He then brought the idea of introducing surreys to campus to ENST 302, a course meant to teach students about sustainability Students buy eco-friendly surrey bike for trial run through group projects.

"Some students come to [ENST 302] with ideas, but we also brainstorm in class and then narrow down the ideas," Johnson, who teaches the course along with Sociology Professor Elizabeth Long, said. "[Berger] came in with a very specific idea."

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Since the idea of looking into sustainable transportation fit in well with the goal of the class and was something Berger was interested in, he added the surrey idea to the list of brainstormed topics for the class' group projects.

"I'm super surrey-ous about this project," Berger said.

Johnson said many other students showed interest in the idea of sustainable transportation, so Berger's idea became one of the final projects. The group researching the surrey consists of five students: Berger, Hernandez, Brown College junior Rowan Canter, Lovett sophomore Carrie Boland and Brown freshman Kayla Burggraf.

Currently, FE&P and H&D use battery-powered golf carts for maintenance and transportation around campus. However, the golf carts are costly - around $6,000 if bought new, according to the group's research - whereas a three-seat surrey is $3,000. Because the surrey bike is an entirely man-powered vehicle, the group feels it would be a good way to make transportation around campus more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

"Maintenance on a golf cart over four years adds up to about the cost of three surreys," Hernandez said.

Berger said that, to fix a surrey, only a basic toolkit would be needed because it is a simple machine.

"A surrey would be cheaper overall," Carter said.

Initially, Glenn said, FE&P employees were not very responsive to the introduction of the surrey bike. However, Glenn said, after trying the surrey, employees enjoyed the bike if they did not have heavy loads to take with them.

"It would not be feasible to replace some of the golf carts, because the surrey frame could not support the weight [of an especially heavy load]," Carter said.

However, Carter added that surreys would be great for those employees at FE&P who do not have to carry around maintenance equipment.

One worry with the surrey was the median age in the FE&P department.

"One person in FE&P I talked to said, 'Our median age is 50. You can't [bring in a surrey]," Hernandez said.

However, Carter said, with its light weight and smooth gear system, the bike is made to be as easy to use as possible. Hernandez said that, talking to employees after they had tried the surrey, many of them loved it.

"I challenge someone to peddle it without smiling," Glenn said.

Even more than the health and monetary benefits, Glenn said the surrey really promotes Rice's motto of "unconventional wisdom."

"It's unconventional transportation," Glenn said.

Johnson said that, with the arrival of the surrey, sustainability has been a more present topic around campus.

"I haven't encountered anything that encourages more talk and enthusiasm about sustainability on campus," Johnson said. "It's the biggest discussion piece for sustainability [at Rice]."

Both Glenn and Johnson are supportive of the group's research into the surrey bike. Glenn said that within H&D, looking into sustainability on campus has been one of the most exciting ways to promote student research.

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