A new form of student transportation debuted on campus yesterday, and the average Penn State student may not know just what to call it.

Its name is the BicyTaxi, the pedal product of a New York City-based outfit that has teamed up with Facebook.com and Chase Bank to provide a free ride service to University Park students.

The sleek, environmentally-friendly vehicle could be seen around campus yesterday, where it picked up around 30 students to take them to their desired on-campus destinations, said Jeff Underwood, the program manager.

The service will run through the end of month, consisting of five drivers offering rides from 9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Rides will only be offered to students with valid Penn State IDs.

The drivers' jurisdiction will cover the majority of main campus, and will be extending east from Burrowes Road to Bigler Road and south from Curtin Road down toward College Avenue.

The BicyTaxis are road vehicles and must abide by all traffic laws.

Nonetheless, pedaler and driver Derrick Smith of Lock Haven claims on average the ride is faster than walking.

"The students would get in and yell at the other people on the sidewalk," Smith said. "They got a real kick out of it."

The promotion, which is being publicized by Trash Talk Media, is encouraging students to visit the Web site for the Chase +1 program, www.facebook.com/plus1, where they can receive redeemable "Karma Points" for free prizes. The Chase +1 group at Penn State has about 28,125 members.

Underwood is employed by a bicycle frame shop in New York City, where he worked on the BicyTaxis now being used at Penn State.

After the Chase +1 BicyTaxi program was initiated on college campuses in New York and Boston last month, Underwood was then deployed to University Park to begin the program here starting yesterday , which coincided with its debut on campuses in areas such as Philadelphia, Michigan and Ohio, he said.

The program got permission from Penn State to offer the service on campus, he said.

"There's a lot more hills," Underwood said about his BicyTaxi experiences in University Park compared to New York City.

One difference he noted, however, was that State College drivers were more accepting of the BicyTaxi's limitations on the road than those in midtown Manhattan.

"Everybody's been very nice," he said.

Everyone from faculty to parking attendants to students seemed curious about the foreign BicyTaxis.

"I think it had something to do with Facebook," Martin Manco (senior-English) said.