Liz vetrano/The Ithacan GRADUATE STUDENT ANNA EHRLICH examines some of the newly repaired bicycles the Ithaca College Environmental Society is using for their Blue Bike Program.

When Ithaca College students are asked to make suggestions for campus improvements, parking is often at the top of their lists.

The Ithaca College Environmental Society is trying to solve this problem by sponsoring a Blue Bike Program to assist students with getting to and from classes without the use of a motor vehicle.

Students who join the program can borrow a bike to ride from location to location on campus. Bikes will be blue for easy recognition.

Bikes will be located at various bike racks throughout campus and are available for members of the Blue Bike Program to use at any time. Members simply use their key to unlock the bike, ride it to the desired location and then lock it back up for another person to use.

Graduate student Anna Ehrlich, project manager, said that even though the bikes are available for unlimited use on campus at any time, they are going to ask members for a $5 deposit for the keys. The ICES Blue Bike Program will hopefully be up and running by next week, she said.

Ehrlich said that over the past three years, parking has become more of a problem on campus. Because of this, ICES has developed the program with the hopes that students will reduce their use of cars within the campus.

“Biking is a really good alternative to driving your car and we want to present that alternative,” Ehrlich said.

Recycle Ithaca’s Bikes, a downtown organization dedicated to repairing, recycling and reusing bicycles, donated all of the bikes to the ICES program. RIBS and ICES have been working collaboratively for the past year in preparation for the Blue Bike Program.

Junior Alyson Follenius said the interest level in repairing the bikes has been high.

“We’ve had a pretty good turnout. There are probably about 20 [students] who have gone down to RIBS off and on to help out,” she said.

Ehrlich said that anyone is welcome to help with the repair of the bikes — all they have to do is contact ICES or RIBS.

“There were even two students from Cornell who volunteered to help out with repairing the bikes,” she said.

Sophomore Kathleen McCarthy said she likes the program because it helps reduce people’s use of cars.

“If you are traveling from the Circles to campus, maybe you could take a bike instead of driving,” she said. “A lot of people on campus don’t have bikes or don’t really think of having bikes because there’s not really many places to keep them.”

She hopes the program will encourage more bike use throughout campus.

The Blue Bike Program will also help in decreasing the amount of pollution in the atmosphere, Ehrlich said.

“Bikes don’t use any fossil fuels and they are the most efficient form of transportation,” she said.

Students can obtain a key for the bike locks by attending an ICES meeting and then are free to use the bikes whenever they wish. ICES meets on Monday nights at 8 p.m. in Friends 203.