Due to cuts TU/e and the municipality of Eindhoven are ceasing the subsidy for white bikes. Every year both parties each spent 25,000 euro on the project, which was intended to strengthen the profile of Eindhoven as a university town.

Since 2007 these two-wheelers have been coveted. A total of some eight hundred bikes featuring the TU/e logo have been handed out over the past four years. Per bike the costs were shared by the municipality, the university and the student, which boiled down to 140 euro each.

It was remarkable that large numbers of Master students, led by the Chinese and Indians, took advantage of this arrangement. Of all students riding white bikes approximately half came from abroad.

Once the project was terminated, there were still eighteen bikes in stock. Within two days they had all gone, after the news had been announced. The last bike went to Eric de Mooij, a first-year student of Mechanical Engineering. Which was pure coincidence, for that matter. “I hadn’t heard that they were going to discontinue the white bikes. I had registered for such a bike because my old one is totally worn and 140 euro is not a lot of money for a new bike.”

Tom Baars of the International Relations Office (STU) regrets the discontinuation of the bicycle project. “The arrangement was reasonably successful. While 140 euro is still a lot of money for some students, we could always easily sell the bikes without a lot of publicity. The numbers were increasing. Unfortunately this has now had to come to an end.” (FvO)