By Paulo Fugen 

They’re standing in racks outside the Hamad Bin Khalifa student center in Education City, baking under the hot Qatari sun. They look as if they’ve been abandoned, left under sheets and surrounded by barriers.

These bicycles here are part of a system that has yet to be activated. In fact, the system was supposed to be implemented last March according to Moritz Meenen, the chief executive officer of Electric Feel, the company that manufactured the bicycles.

But now, six months after that deadline, with the new freshman class walking around campus, they are still not in use.

“I heard there was a bus system [in Education City] and I was happy,” said Wajeeha Malik, a journalism freshman at Northwestern University in Qatar. “When I heard there was a bicycle system, I was even happier.”

“I was really surprised to find out that the bicycle system wasn’t implemented yet,” Malik added.

Meenen said that the bicycle system is supposed to consist of 200 electric-powered bicycles distributed among 20 bike racks in EC. Students will have to leave them at another bicycle rack at their destination as part of the bicycle-sharing scheme.

Qatar Foundation’s delay in activating the bicycle system has drawn criticism from students all over EC.

“I know it was supposed to open this semester,” said Ashraf Al Sharawi, a junior mechanical engineering student at Texas A&M University in Qatar. “It is kind of frustrating. They should [set] deadlines and stick to them.”

“It is kind of surprising that such a renowned institution, a pioneer in education and biomedical research, among other things, fails to deliver such seemingly simple promises and services,” said Bassem Oraby, a medical student in his second year at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.

Jassim Telefat, technical affairs director at Qatar Foundation Capital Projects, understands their frustration.

“I really don’t blame them for that, unfortunately it is the first time to us to use this system, this type of system is not available locally,” said Telefat, “We wanted to make sure that when we started, we started the right way.”

But long time students at Education City never had high expectations for the system.

“I have spent four years here in Education City,” said Azka Ali, a communications sophomore at NU-Q, who previously studied at WCMC-Q, “And I am not surprised to hear that they haven’t delivered it.”

Students also feel that QF has not properly communicated with them about the bicycle system.

“I’ve never gotten any recent updates,” Ali added. “We are a part of this community, [QF] has to at least tell us about what’s going on.”

For many students, all the construction work going on in Education City has only resulted in a greater demand for the bike system. Now, more than ever, with busses having to take longer routes to schools and cars not being allowed on campus, students are finding that the bike system should prove very useful.

“We need an alternative to the current bus system since they aren’t always on time,” Al Sharawi said, “I know a couple of people who have been late to class because their bus driver waited to fill up the bus with more people, even though there were four buses behind him.”