The Triangle

Issue date: 1/23/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Karl Kuchs

Drexel University alumni Jason Meinzer and James Perkins, along with senior business administration major Timothy Ericson, founded CityRyde LLC, a bike sharing consulting firm in November 2007.

The idea for CityRyde originated when Ericson studied abroad as part of the Drexel in London program. He said he had the opportunity to travel to many places during that time, including Paris, where he saw the launch of the bike sharing program Vélib'.

"The idea was that you could rent bikes from anywhere, go wherever you wanted, and then drop them off when you arrived at your destination," Ericson said. "It was an amazing system, and I knew I wanted to bring it home to Philadelphia."

Their business was among the top 10 finalists for Green Business in the Fast Pitch Business Network's "Business of the Year" competition.

"We were just very happy to know that all our time and effort had finally paid off and that it was being recognized," Meinzer said.

Ericson, who also has a concentration in management information systems, said it showed that green businesses are now becoming a part of the culture and help promote the "green mentality" and its ideas.

"The more people who know about bike sharing, the more likely it is to happen," Ericson said.

According to Ericson, winning the Green Business category would be a big step in helping to bring bike sharing to the United States.

Ericson said he thought the program would be beneficial to the city and the college campuses, as many students live off campus, have classes on campus, or work in Center City.

"When it comes to stolen bikes, Philadelphia has the highest crime rate in the nation," Ericson said. "I think a lot of people would like to have this system where they can basically rent the bikes for wherever they need to go."

According to Meinzer, they not only wanted to make the idea reality, but make it better by incorporating new technology and studying other bike sharing systems around the world.

Perkins said the effort to create a new and improved system was a "leap of faith" for them and for the entrepreneurial community.

"We threw all our time and resources into this, to pursue something we were passionate about and felt was for the good of the society," Perkins said.

Meinzer emphasized the time and effort the three put into the project.

"We lived and breathed it, day in and day out," Meinzer said.

Continued...

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