Traverse City Record-Eagle

Jodee Taylor

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  • Nathan Lodge with some of the bikes he's fixed up for his community bike-share program. Special to the Record-Eagle

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  • Jodee Taylor

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November 21, 2011

Jodee Taylor: Reviving bike-share program

By Jodee Taylor, Columnist ----

A — Nathan Lodge is having trouble letting go of his service project.

Lodge, 17, a senior at St. Francis, turned in the project last year -- and got an A -- but continues to work on it.

He wants bikes for the masses.

While recovering from a broken leg he got while skiing in Park City, Utah, as a sophomore, he and his dad, Tom, who was recovering from back surgery, talked a lot about how much they missed riding their bikes. They're both pedaling again, at least recreationally, often riding from their home near Acme to downtown Traverse City (about 8 or 9 miles one way) for Sunday breakfast.

Those tedious days on the couch spawned a plan.

Nathan Lodge started a community bike share project, Next Generation Bike Program, that he hopes will launch in the spring. He's fixed up 20 adult bikes -- tearing them down, building them back up and painting them -- that he picked up at garage sales or from friends and family. He also got some bikes from Don Cunckle, of TART's Recycle-A-Bicycle Project.

He learned a lot of the mechanics from his dad and can now restore a bike on his own, he said.

But there's still work to be done.

Lodge says he's received great feedback from Northwestern Michigan College and the Commons, as well as help from Lee Maynard at TART, local bike shops and bike enthusiasts.

The biggest surprise for the teenager is how much "persistence it takes to get something like this moving, how many people I have to talk to."

He wants to make those 20 bikes -- or more -- available to whoever needs them come spring. He knows a similar program launched in Traverse City a few years ago didn't work out (a lot of the slick red bikes ended up in the Boardman River) but he's reading up on other bike-share programs to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"Accountability is the main idea," he said.

He hopes that someone who wants to borrow a bike will leave collateral -- an ID or a small cash deposit -- to ensure the bike is returned.

Imagine parking downtown and hopping on a bike for a quick spin to the Commons. Imagine being a college student who needs to run errands or get to work -- and there's a bike at the ready.

Those are the people Nathan Lodge wants to help.

He still needs bike locks, helmets, bike racks, cash and, sure, bikes. He's hoping other bikers in northwest Michigan will chip in.

Contact Nathan Lodge at 938-1304 or tclodge@charter.net.

Jodee Taylor can be reached at jtaylor@record-eagle.com.

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