In the last few days, UGM looks different. On the streets of the campus environment many students can be seen cycling. Yes, bicycling on the campus of UGM is increasing since the commencement of courses activity for new students that have mostly started on today, Monday (12/9).
"It’s quite enjoyable to ride a bicycle on campus. I agree with the policy to prohibit the use of motor vehicles in the campus because in addition to reducing pollution levels, it reduces traffic in the campus," said Marco Darmasyah, student of Regional Development Department, Faculty of Geography. Marco is one of thousands of new students who have used the UGM campus bicycle facilities as a means of transportation.
To materialize the educopolis campus, UGM is promoting cycling culture movement among its academic community. One initial step begins by establishing a new policy that prohibits new students in bringing vehicles to campus. With this policy, UGM has recently launched campus bicycle service "UGM Ngepit(UGM Cycling)", that provides 200 units of bicycles and 20 bicycle racks. To support the campus cycling movement, cycle stations are provided on a number of locations that are not too far from the location of the transportation forms as well as in some clusters.
The UGM policy apparently received positive appreciation from the new students. One of them is Siska Indriarsih, student of Food Technology and Agricultural Production Department, Faculty of Agricultural Technology. "I have no problem with these policies. By cycling on campus, in addition to reducing air pollution and noise, I can work out while at it,” said Siska.
Another opinion is expressed by Ayip Mukhlis, a student of Environmental Geography Science Department, Faculty of Geography. According to Ayip, with the cycling movement, the atmosphere at UGM looks so populist. "UGM looks so populist. Everything looks equal; there is no distinction between the rich and the poor. All of them riding a bicycle for transportation on campus," he added,
Marco, Siska, and Ayip have similar expectations related to the presence of this campus bike. They hope for the addition of campus bicycle stations. "If possible, bike stations should be added. Hopefully, there is bike station in each faculty because distance from campus to the nearest station is pretty far. Similarly, the campus bike should be added to balance the number of thousands of students at UGM," said Ayip.