UP Los Baños will soon launch a bike and e-scooter rental for its community to push for green mobility in the campus.
 
The university partnered with Tipaklong Sustainable Mobility for the pilot test of the program, which is expected in the first half of March.
 
Under the program, an initial 120 units of mechanical bikes, e-bikes, and electric kick scooters will be deployed in several hubs across the campus for rental of students, teachers, and the entire community.
 
"Sa UPLB, it's a shared mobility project. It's part of a bigger green mobility initiative of UPLB where they will promote active and electrified transport. This will cater to the people in the campus," said Tipaklong Sustainable Mobility Founder and President Arnold Bufi.
 
"We had discussions with them for two years na. We had a memorandum of understanding March last year. Hopefully we can deploy by the first half of March," he added.
 
Bikes and scooters can be rented via QR codes accessible in the Tipaklong app. Renters would have to download and register in the app to access a bike.
 
"This addresses the pain points ng students na they have classes that are far apart from each other. With this service, we can provide alternative to students," Bufi said.
 
"You're gonna rent it out for the first 10 minutes then for the succeeding kilometers may additional," he added.
 
Bufi said the rental service would initially be on a per-use basis, with fees comparative to jeepney fares.
 
Eventually, they will roll out daily, weekly, and semestral passes for those using bikes regularly.
 
"The number of bikers have increased. It's a good initiative by Chancellor Dong," Bufi said.
 
The bikes and scooters will be stationed in areas accessible to students.
 
"We're using a hub-centric system, we have identified 20 to 30 spaces around the campus. Naturally, dorms meron. From dorms, may stations sa academic buildings. You can get a ride, then park to a near station," he said.
 
There will be a back-end office which will track the location and battery status of bikes.
 
The bikes and scooters will be equipped with GPS so they can be tracked at any given time.
 
There will also be personnel deployed for manual battery swapping and vehicle redistribution, so the bikes and scooters would not get stuck in one area of the campus.
 
"This is micro-mobility, if you know how to bike or scoot, you don't have to wait at the jeepney stations," he said.
 
Bufi said aside from being environmentally sound, it's also a safe and convenient way to get to your destinations.
 
"Within the campus, it's a 30 kilometer per hour drive zone. It's okay, di naman nagmamabilis sasakyan doon. It's safe," he said.
 
Bufi hopes that once they get successful, the program can be replicated in other big spaces like UP Diliman and Camp Aguinaldo.
 
"It also gives me pleasure that we are starting this, something we think, addresses the needs of students," he said.
 
"In Tipaklong, the reimagined future of mobility is active, connected, electrified, and shared. We have to move away from the car-centric paradigm. Hopefully, we can be part of the solution," Bufi said.

SUPPORT FROM UPLB
 
UP Los Baños Vice Chancellor Roberto Cereno said they expected the initiative to reduce car volume in the campus. 
 
"Problema namin, parking. Dahil sa lack of transport, napapabili ng sasakyan ang mga estudyante. Isa itong solusyon dito," Cereno told ABS-CBN News.
 
"Problema din namin ang sasakyan. Yung campus kasi, hindi siya yung typical urban campus. Meron kaming upland areas; hindi dinadaanan ng regular PUJs namin, kaya medyo challenge," he said.
 
However, he clarified that the bikes would only operate inside the campus and students living outside cannot take them home.
 
"Malakas ang loob namin na simulan yan sa loob ng campus kase, may mga bike lanes na kami made-develop. Outside ng UPLB, challenge pa rin ito," he said.
 
Cereno said that aside from solving transportation woes, this is also part of their commitment to make the campus more environment friendly.
 
"This is driven by the call for climate action," he said. "We have to act on carbon. We hope to minimize the carbon footprint."