A new bike-sharing program was announced on Tuesday by General Motors (GM), in partnership with private bike sharing firm Zagster. The bike-sharing program has been announced for GM employees at the company's Warren Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.

The Zagster bike-sharing program launched by GM marks the first-of-its-kind program for the Detroit-based automaker. The program includes a total of 50 bikes for the company's 330-acre Warren campus, which boasts a workforce of 19,000 employees in 61 buildings.

Each of the 50 bikes included in the program will be fitted with a basket to facilitate the employees in safely transporting their laptops, notebooks and other small belongings. Employees will have to wear helmets while riding the bikes, and will use bells to alert pedestrians when they are approaching.

GM's Warren Technical Center employees who wish to participate in the company's new bike-sharing program have to register themselves online. After registration, the employees have to reserve a bike via text message or a smartphone app which provides an access code for unlocking the lock box mounted on the bike.

Terming the bike-sharing program as "an awesome idea," Tech Center designing engineer John Waechter said in a statement: "I can't wait to quickly get to meetings without walking to a car and finding parking. This is good for exercise, good for on-campus mobility and a nice way to actually learn more about non-auto transportation."