Michigan State University Partners with Bike Index to Launch New Bike Registration and Management Platform

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Feb 06, 2024, 07:45 ET

EAST LANSING, Mich., Feb. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Bike Index welcomes Michigan State University (MSU) to its international bike registry with a suite of campus-specific tools to manage bicycles on campus. Features that include interdepartmental communication regarding bicycle management, location-based messaging for bike owners, impounded bike features, and smart QR code stickers have been launched for the 2023/24 school year. The new system acts as a deterrent against bike theft on campus while providing effective bicycle campus management for the university.

Bicycles are a popular mode of transportation with university students. Entering into the 2023/24 school year, university transportation staff are not only tasked with managing analog bicycles, but also e-bikes and scooters. The volume and variety of vehicles on campus have forced administrators to invest in tools to manage their communication with vehicle owners regarding parking violations, abandonment, excessive speed, accidents, theft and impoundment. Bike Index offers a comprehensive solution for universities via their University Management Dashboard and a suite of privacy-preserving communication tools. Through this program, Bike Index supports 84 university partners and manages over 30,000 bicycles.

Additionally, bicycle theft is one of the most prominent issues on college campuses. A four-year student with a bicycle has a 53% chance of losing their bike to theft. Bike registration in Bike Index's registry significantly increases the chances of recovering and returning a stolen bike.

Bike Index's international bike registration database contains over one million registered bicycles. When a bike is marked as stolen, the Bike Index community and over 1,500 partner organizations are notified. By registering campus bikes into Bike Index, Michigan State University now increases the likelihood of their recovery in the case of theft—even if a bike is moved across state lines.

"We are extremely excited to add MSU to our growing list of university partners," says Executive Director, Craig Dalton. "Bike Index is best known for our tireless work in stolen bike recovery, but over the past six years, we've been building an operating system for bicycle management on university campuses. Our comprehensive system for universities allows administrators to manage all aspects of bicycles, e-bikes and scooters on campus via a single, purpose-built system."

Bike Index is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the world's most widely-used bicycle registration service, with over 1.1 million cataloged bikes and more than 1,500 community partners. To learn more about Bike Index and its campus services, visit www.bikeindex.org.

SOURCE Bike Index