Columbia students bike up Chicago businesses

Christy Webber Landscaping Prototype

Professor Carl Boyd, adjunct professor in the College of Project Design at Columbia College, leads a course called Urban Bike Design. Students create prototypes of bike carriers for urban businesses looking to improve or implement bike-based services, such as vending, delivery, and cargo. The Urban Bike Design course, which is now in its second year, is currently working with Metropolis Coffee, Christy Webber Landscapes, All-Star Maids, and TimeOut Chicago.
 

When Kevin Henry, coordinator of the Project Design Program, first thought up the course, he spoke with people and organizations like the Working Bikes Coop to brainstorm ideas for forming a class integrating bikes into the curriculum. The course’s mission evolved into increasing bike-based businesses in Chicago in conjunction with the Bike 2015 plan, which works to improve bike infrastructure and safety, as well as establish a bikeway network that serves all Chicago residents and neighborhoods.

Professor Boyd says students were extremely ambitious in this year's course. “It’s going to be tough to try to top what we did this time,” says Boyd who notes that they are always trying to push the envelope.
 

For Metropolis, students created a customized bike-powered vendor car designed to help build the Metropolis brand by serving samples of coffee and selling coffee beans. They created a custom bike trailer for Christy Webber Landscapes that hauls plants and equipment down narrow streets. For All-Star Maids, the students created a bike suitable for maids to perform their routes via bike since the company requires maids to pay for their own transportation and parking costs. Since TimeOut Chicago already delivers the publication by bike trailer, the students looked for ways to upgrade trailers and expand practice in other cities.
 

The projects this year generated positive responses and enthusiasm from the businesses involved. Christy Webber Landscapes even showed interest in creating a whole fleet of bike carriers for their equipment. While the class focused on established businesses this year, Boyd says they hope to work more with entrepreneurs who are looking to start businesses with a bike-based service next year.