On South Campus, a group of students and NAU faculty spend their free time fixing up 140 old bicycles and preparing to turn the campus greener with a little help from the color yellow.

On Oct. 1, NAU will release 50 yellow bikes for public use on campus. The Yellow Bike Program was an idea that was proposed in a class last spring to promote sustainable communities. The class pitched the idea to NAU President John D. Haeger, who agreed to support the program and donate bicycles for public use.

Mike Madigan, director of the Yellow Bike Program, said Haeger donated 140 bicycles that were left on campus during the summer.

“We will release the first 50 bikes Oct. 1 (the beginning of bike week),” Madigan said. “We are going to release them slowly. The first 50 will be a challenge.”

The Yellow Bike Program is popular in many cities in the United States and Europe. Madigan said Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas and Boulder, Colo. all have similar programs, and cities like Paris and Amsterdam also have bicycles available for public use.

The main problem Yellow Bike Programs usually run into is bicycle theft. However, Madigan and Yellow Bike intern Sam Lettes, senior classical guitar major, are hopeful it will be successful.

“We are hoping since Flagstaff is a strong bicycle community, everyone will take responsibility (for the bikes),” Madigan said.

Madigan said he hopes if people see a yellow bike lying around Flagstaff, they will take it personally and return it to campus.

Lettes said the program does not usually do well in most cities.

“There is usually a 90 percent loss,” Lettes said.

If people are honest, Lettes believes the program does have the potential to be successful.

“Depending on the loss, we plan to release three to four bicycles a week,” Lettes said.

However, Lettes said the 140 bicycles may take even longer to be released.

Currently, the Yellow Bike Program is still working on repairing, inspecting and tuning up the bikes. They also have to spray paint them yellow.

“We are only one-third of the way done (fixing the bikes),” Lettes said.

Madigan said the program is in need of a lot of volunteers.

“We need so much help,” Madigan said. “We need help maintaining them, tuning them and painting them. Our intern is in building 77A Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.”

Many students think the Yellow Bike Program is a good idea, but are unsure how it will work.

“I wouldn’t use the bikes because I have a bicycle of my own, but if I didn’t I would use the bikes,” said Margaret Porter, junior photography major. “It sounds like a great idea but I don’t see how they will not be stolen.”

Madigan said if the program does work out, a better system could be put in place.

“Typically, a high rate of loss is expected to a certain degree, but if it is successful maybe the university will put time into the program,” Madigan said.

In other cities, credit cards are swiped to check out a bike and swiped again once the bike is returned in order to hold the rider accountable. Madigan suggested that maybe a student would swipe an ID card to check out a bike and swipe it again to return the bicycle in order to hold people accountable.

Madigan said students must keep in mind that if a bike is used to go from South Campus to North Campus, the chances of a bicycle being there may not be a sure thing. However, he said hopefully there will be a bike nearby.

In order to promote the release of the bicycles, critical mass will take place Oct. 1. The bikes will all be ridden around campus to promote the program and introduce students to the bikes.

“Everyone should come out and show support,” Lettes said.

Bike week will continue with events like a bike-in movie and a bike wash.

As for how the color yellow was chosen, there is no set reason, Madigan said.

“I have no idea (why they are yellow),” Madigan said. “But yellow will stand out.”