Student-led TigrBikes shares student interest form, first semester after e-bike ban

TigrBikes, a student-led bike rental non-profit, is gauging interest ahead of a tentative rollout next semester. The organization was founded following a campus-wide ban on e-bikes in June, which cited safety concerns for pedestrians.

This initiative is led by co-founders George Dolce ’29 and Caden Southworth ’29. According to Dolce, TigrBikes “is being developed through Princeton Student Agencies (PSA), which has been supporting us as we work towards launching the program.” 

“We are working with PSA on the financial and operational aspects of getting the business up and running,” Dolce told The Daily Princetonian. “We are responsible for developing the business, building partnerships, conducting market research, and overseeing marketing efforts.” The co-founders said that TigrBikes’ progression is contingent on the student interest gauged in the reservation form. 

Southworth said that he viewed the e-bike ban as a unique market opportunity for TigrBikes. The organization “is inspired by the recent e-bike ban on Princeton that students have lost a form of mobility around campus,” he explained.

None of the University’s own bike rental programs are currently functional. In June 2020, Zagster, a bike-sharing company, abruptly terminated its contract with the University and shut down operations nationwide due to the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of the termination, Zagster’s Princeton program operated 12 stations around campus and a fleet of 90 manual bicycles at the time of its closing.

According to a statement from University spokesperson Ahmad Rizvi, rentals for the Princeton Bike Library paused in Fall 2025 because “proprietary parts needed to make repairs were no longer available for purchase.” 

The Bike Library loaned a fleet of 100 “professionally refurbished” Breezer bikes, marketed as cheap alternatives to PEVs, and “cost $25 to rent for one semester, or $40 for the year.”

The cost listed for a standard Gotham bike on TigrBikes’s website is $189 per semester, roughly $13 per week. The cost covers the rental, free maintenance and repairs, on-campus pick-ups and returns, and a bike lock. Southworth said they hoped to ease the financial costs and inconvenience associated with private bike ownership.

“Whether you live in California, whether you live overseas, it’s really hard to transport that bike back to your house,” Southworth told the ‘Prince.’ “Bikes are not cheap. Especially maintenance.” 

The project originated from Southworth’s personal efforts to use some of the discarded bikes from the University’s disposal system. 

“With all these abandoned bikes, they’re just throwing them away, trashing them, scrapping them,” Southworth said, pointing to the University’s bike disposal process. “So, the whole idea actually started with me reaching out to the school and [being] like, ‘Hey, instead of you guys just trashing these bikes, can you instead give them to me?’”

Southworth said that he fixes abandoned bicycles as a hobby. Following the e-bike ban, he said he and Dolce realized “instead of just like a little hobby … this could actually be like a real solution to a real problem that was on campus.” 

The ‘Prince’ spoke to some students regarding the initiative and heard mixed reactions. 

“They are clearly taking into account what negative effects [the] e-bike ban has had on the students. A bike rental is a step in the right direction,” Emmanuele Gray ’29 told the ‘Prince.’

Students also highlighted the convenience of a rental option. 

“I’ve never really wanted to go out of my way to have to buy and maintain a bike myself,” Miniya Malone ’29 told the ‘Prince.’ “So I thought that the bike rental program would be a really good opportunity.” 

Diego Castro ’29 was more reluctant to embrace TigrBikes. “I think our bus system is a huge resource that not enough people take advantage of. Instead of focusing on a new program, we should maybe reinforce what we already have,” he told the ‘Prince.’

Cheyenne Anderson ’30 also expressed concerns over a potential increase in the number of bikes on campus following the rollout of TigrBikes. “The people who are riding bikes are sometimes unaware of people who are walking,” Anderson said.

“I can’t cross the street. I’m in fear of getting hit by a bike,” she added.

Southworth emphasized that TigrBikes functions as a non-profit, explaining that every survey response helps TigrBikes build its case. 

“Just for them showing up to the website, clicking that button, filling out a 30-second survey, it helps out a ton, just because it shows the school that now we can present this data and be like, look, ‘This is a real demand here on campus,’” he said.

According to Dolce, the survey had received approximately 80 responses from Princeton students as of Sunday afternoon. 

Nilufer Bektas is a News contributor for the ‘Prince’ and a member of the Class of 2030 from the Philadelphia suburbs.

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.