UNTHSC Connection

The Health Science Center geared up its commitment to a healthier community with the installation of a Fort Worth Bike Sharing station April 3.

What’s bike sharing? Much like borrowing books from a library, you use a credit card or pre-paid pass to “check out” a bicycle from a station, ride it to your destination, then “check in” the bike at the nearest station. The program goes live April 22—Earth Day.

Bike sharing is new to Fort Worth but going strong in many cities including San Antonio, Washington, D.C.; Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago and Portland, Ore.

Fort Worth is the first North Texas city to start bike sharing. UNTHSC is a founding member and has a fully solar-powered station.

“It’s a perfect fit for our mission of improving health and quality of life,” said UNTHSC Marketing Manager Amy Buresh Schnelle, who coordinated the campus project. “Bicycling improves air quality and personal wellbeing. Locating a station on campus not only provides convenience to our faculty, staff and students but also brings more people to our campus and continues the UNTHSC commitment to major community projects.”

The UNTHSC station is outside the Center for BioHealth near the intersection of Camp Bowie Boulevard and Boland Street. Other station locations will be downtown, the Cultural District, the Near Southside and at TCU. UNTHSC will be the westernmost station at program launch, and about half of the bikes installed there at program launch will bear the UNTHSC logo.

The sponsorship costs for the station have been funded through the cooperation of multiple UNTHSC departments including: Facilities Management Department, Office of Sustainability, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, School of Public Health, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, School of Health Professions, Employee Benefits Action Committee and the Fund for Excellence, which is supported largely by contributions to the annual employee giving campaign.

As a station sponsor, UNTHSC employees and students can purchase discounted Bike Share memberships. You can use a high-quality bicycle for less than $100 annually. To purchase your annual membership:

• Go to https://fortworth.bcycle.com/joinnow.aspx
• Faculty and staff should enter promo code “untemployee”

You must register with your work email address. If your work email address does not end in “unthsc.edu”, contact nick@fortworthbikesharing.org to receive a unique promo code.

Students should enter promo code “college” and must register with their @live.unthsc.edu email to receive the discount.

The first 30 people who bring a receipt for an annual Bike Sharing pass to UNTHSC Marketing Manager Amy Buresh Schnelle amy.buresh@unthsc will receive a free UNTHSC branded bike helmet.