Revolving Wheels; Evolving Philosophy
BY ALYSON DAME

Over the past few years, Oberlin’s student-run bike co-op has been fine-tuning the organization and working to get all its gears running smoothly. Its home in the basement of Keep Cottage has expanded.


(photo by Lee Dolan)

Grants and an energized staff have helped to increase hours, expand community outreach, offer two ExCo’s and create a summer program that is entering its third year.
Senior and bike co-op president David Bevacqua has worked to broaden the mission of the co-op. “When I first got involved in Fall ’98, it was more or less a student club. There weren’t many hours during the week. I came in with a big flux of people that were interested in the future of the bike co-op,” he said. 
The bike co-op’s mission has changed over time. Professor of environmental studies John Petersen was instrumental in starting the bike co-op when he was a student. “The group that started the co-op was an odd mixture of those of us like myself, who were political activists and folks who were fairly apolitical or anarchistic, but loved bicycles. For those of us who were political, the bike co-op was a neat means of combining social activism with something wonderfully hands-on,” Petersen said, adding, “The slogans we printed on our first T-shirt designs are a testament to our thinking — ‘The revolutionary recyclery’, ‘Building technological democracy.’”
Bevacqua has seen the philosophy become more politically involved during his involvement. “It’s gone through some big waxing and waning of ideas and personnel and through the years it has been more or less involved with the College or the town,” Bevacqua said. 
One of the first objectives of the new leadership was to expand community outreach. “There was a lot of excitement, I remember. We decided the way we could accomplish the most in the alternative transportation movement was not to help College students keep their new bicycle shiny but to get more involved with community members and kids, especially,” Bevacqua said. Grants provide the extra funding for these plans. Sadu Johnson, OC ’98, helped write two grants in 1999. “We were awarded a huge grant from Stocker Foundation that year for $8,000 and the Bill Long Foundation also gave us $500,” Bevacqua said, adding, “That was money for the organization and our management and then also to pay summer employees.”
In the summer of 1999 the bike co-op was open for bike repair classes for community kids and adults, but as Bevacqua said, “The most lasting change was the renovation. We changed the back room from a filthy bike graveyard into a teaching shop with room for six bikes and three complete workstations.” Last summer, three employees continued the classes and completed the renovation.
Today, the bike co-op is open, clean and organized. Spare parts are kept together, tools are hung neatly, and rows of rental bicycles have been restored to working condition so that the demand on campus can be met. 
Senior and treasurer Tori Johnson is proud of the bike co-op’s self-sustainability. “Right now, we’re still dependant on grant money for summer programs. Aside from that, we’re pretty self-sufficient. We don’t get money from SFC,” she said. The bike co-op’s economic independence does not become a burden for members. “The idea is that because it’s a cooperative people aren’t paying huge mark-ups on different parts,” she said. 
The semester membership fee of $6 allows members access to the tools and mechanic know-how during open hours, as well as cheap used parts, and new parts close to the wholesale prices. “Anything we don’t have can be ordered from our catalogs,” Johnson said. 
The bike co-op runs a rental program and an Earn-a-Bike program, but does not currently sell bikes. Johnson noted that to sell bikes would make the co-op a competitor with local businesses, which was outside of what she saw as their objective. “It’s really tempting to want to sell bikes, because we have more bikes than we really know what to do with. But we’ve really made a concerted effort not to do retail,” Johnson said.
Both Johnson and Bevacqua see the bike co-op’s work as part of a bigger movement to rethink transportation. “The number of students who drive their cars around Oberlin is enormous, and its stupid. And I think if it wasn’t so easy to get a bicycle, even more students would drive,” Bevacqua said.

 

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