The days of worrying about hiking gas prices are over, universities are finally turning over a new greener leaf. Among the most environmentally active, college students stand alongside Al Gore on the frontlines of battle against pollution. So to bank on students’ willingness to eradicate pollution and leave their pricey vehicles at home, colleges are donning us The Bicycle Generation.

Wisconsin’s Ripon College is offering the freshmen class an attractive mountain bike set complete with a helmet and padlock in exchange for their parking spaces on campus. The entire kit will cost the college about $300 per student and the requests for the bicycles are pouring in with about 60% of the school’s freshmen opting for the bike instead of bringing their gas-guzzlers onto campus.
 

Ripon is not the only school to tackle the issue of parking lot feng shui and environmentally safer campuses, Auburn has recently added a bike maintenance shop to its student center and will be launching a bike-sharing program this fall for its students.

The grad students of Suny-Albany are also jumping to their bikes and proposed a 5K walking and biking track on campus. One third of the track was completed in June and is now open for student use.

So start a trend on your campus and trade in your parents' old Buick for a shiny new Mongoose.