Where do free bike rides go?

During the summer of 2020, in front of the Faculty of Mining in Prijedor, four bicycles were set up for a free rental for 24 hours per day. It was an action of Srđan Šobot, Mirjana Komosar and Helena Kos, members of Youth Council of this Faculty. Someone would think that their goal was to promote a healthy lifestyles or to contribute to reduce air pollution. Maybe the bikes were set up in desire to enable students, professors and staff of the Faculty to, without any costs, go to the city during breaks and do some private stuff?

Indeed we can say that was also accomplished with this action. During the beautiful sunny days of summer in 2020, about fifteen students and professors saved on fuel everyday, preserved their health and clean air by using free rental bicycles. In fact, exactly these goals were stated in their project proposal in lonac.pro community where they asked for the financial support from Youthbank Prijedor. After some time they got much needed support and purchased the bicycles.

But, the real motive was actually to promote Faculty of Mining and the fact that the Faculty is the only higher education institution in Prijedor, which still records drop in student enrollment.

 “When we decided to take this action, we actually thought about how citizens would see an interesting and innovative moving advertisement of our faculty, an action that promotes healthy living and of which students are the initiators, so maybe next year more people will enroll at the Faculty of Mining.” Srđan explained.

Mirjana pointed out that with this project they wanted to show young people that mining is not a “black industry”, that they also care about an environment, as well as that their Faculty doesn’t only teach boring theory, on the contrary, it can actually be fun. With that goal set, they organized a promotional ride to the ancient mine in Ljubija, where the ore was exploited in the Roman period.

The ideological initiator of the “RF bicycles” project is Srđan, whose activism “surfaced” back in 2014., when he joined the Red Cross team in providing assistance to the endangered population during the floods in May of that year. Since then, he looked for every opportunity to do something good for community in which he lives, whether that was in his college, in lonac.pro community or elsewhere: 

“Through several actions as members of the Youth Council we managed to organize a student club, managed to buy computers and tables for table tennis and to create a space for gathering and socializing. We often organize courses on various topics, one of which is currently underway. Last year, with the help of Youthbank Prijedor, we organized an exhibition of mining exhibits that follow the development of Prijedor mining since the ancient Romans.”

Srđan finds his meaning in helping other people, and his every word shows love for his hometown. Therefore, his wish that Prijedor, like other major cities, gets stations for bicycles, where citizens could rent them at a symbolic price that would cover maintenance costs, is not surprising.

This small and hard-working team is planning new promotional rides in spring, including one to Novi Grad, where, as a part of higher education institution, they would draw attention to the problem of disposing of nuclear waste along the B&H border and to express their opposition. Helena advises young people in Prijedor that they can always contact their Youth Council of the Faculty of Mining or Board of the Youthbank Prijedor if they want to solve a problem, initiate an action or to learn something new.

And now let's get back to the title of this article text: ” Where do free bike rides go?”. We often do things in life that have multiple goals at the same time – or rather, one purpose and multiple results or added value. Four bicycles for free rental take us around the city at no cost, protect our health and contribute to the environment, but all of that is just a decoration in bicycle baskets that will attract us to sit on them and head in a direction that has a deeper and more far-reaching meaning. 

“My goal is to leave a trace behind – for the city to get a student dormitory, for as many young people as possible to come to Prijedor,” Srđan told us. 

And that's it, a man with a vision, who has gathered people with faith that young people in this country can achieve their goals – if they know what they want and if they are persistent enough to persevere on their path with small steps.