The construction of a public bicycle rental system, called U-Bike, on the KAIST campus was completed and began effective operation on September 1. With financial assistance from the Ministry of Public Administration and Security (MOPAS) and Daejeon City, KAIST became the first university in the country to possess such a system that could be interchangeably used with the already existing, city-wide public bicycle rental facility of the Daejeon metropolis.

Accordingly, KAIST students are now able to borrow, through self-service, the 50 bicycles available at the three U-Bike stations located around the campus. Since the system is co-managed with Daejeon’s own bike rental service, “Tashu~,” students not only have the freedom to cycle around the KAIST campus, but, should they choose to, may wheel out of campus for a ride along the bicycle path by the Gapcheon River.

Students may be pleased to find that the bicycles may be returned both in and out of campus, as a truck goes around the bicycle stations at appointed times each day to take bikes away from overfilled racks and stock up the sparse ones. Similarly, bicycles that were rented from downtown Daejeon may be returned to in-school stations as well.

The public bicycle sharing program in Korea, originally an experimental enterprise for only the bustling parts of booming metropolises, extended its base when it received applications from domestic universities for incorporation of the system within campus grounds.

Based on factors such as surrounding traffic conditions and willingness to adopt the innovation, KAIST was chosen as one of seven final recipient colleges, under the purpose of giving ample access to bicycles to the burgeoning young population, whose cycling experiences will hopefully connect to their future use of bicycles as an energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly alternative to other methods of transportation.

To this end, MOPAS funded 100 million Won to each university to pay for the costs of constructing an intra-college public bicycle rental system, including bicycles, racks and other parts of the infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Daejeon City provided support in the management of the central control unit, bike repairs and relocation, resolving the major problem of maintenance and making the project easier to pursue.