The Zipcar bike-share program will first be piloted in 15 US college campuses to assess the viability of replicating it across the country.

The bike-share program was the result of the partnership between Zipcar and Zagster, both leaders in vehicle-sharing, to promote the use of bicycle in colleges and universities throughout the country with the end view of cutting on emission gas and parking demand.

David Piperno, Zipcar VP for finance and strategy said in a press statement said that they are trying to leverage the new trend of on-demand access vs. ownership in today's students.

 "Zipcar programs on campuses improve the quality of life for students, faculty and staff alike by making it easy to access a car only when they need one, and our partnership with Zagster will allow us to offer that same access to bikes," he said.

For his part, Timothy Ericson, Zagster CEO said that Zipcar bike-share program said that the cost of owning and maintaining a bike has been the major hurdle of promoting the use of alternative ride for students rather than public or private transport.

The Zagster and Zipcar bike-share program cuts that cost through sponsorship.

Ericson explained, "The process of securing sponsorship and underwriting is a time-consuming process for universities, and can set back the launch of bike sharing programs. Because we've solved that problem up front, Zipbike can be deployed seamlessly and quickly."

Meanwhile, Yahoo Finance reported that shares of the Avis Budget Group, Inc. spiked 7.4% following the announcement of the Zagster and Zipcar bike-share program.