Blog
More March Madness: New Bicycle-Friendly Universities Announced
The NCAA basketball tournament is down to the Final Four, but the bracket of Bicycle Friendly Universities (BFU) is expanding. Today, the League advanced nine new universities to the elite ranks of bicycle-friendly campuses.
“As universities compete for students and status, becoming more bicycle-friendly is a winning strategy that energizes and invigorates staff and the student body, not just in March, but year-round,” said League President, Andy Clarke. “By making cycling safe and enjoyable, BFUs are both educating and empowering the next generation to adopt smarter, healthier transportation habits that will last a lifetime.”
Now in it’s second year, the program has grown to 35 campuses in 21 states. Click here to see the full list of Bicycle Friendly Universities.
With this round of BFU awards, the competition between conferences heats up. The Big Ten added the University of Michigan to BFU list and continues to lead with seven BFUs. The PAC 12 is a close second with six schools, including the addition this round of Oregon State University. The ACC added four BFU winners, rocketing them to third place with the inclusion of Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State University and the University of Miami.
While they’re out of the Big Dance, Duke is taking the lead in bicycling, turning an Honorable Mention in 2011 to a Bronze designation in 2012. “Over the past six months, we’ve addressed safety on all our roads, adding bike lanes, wide shoulders or sharrows to every street on campus,” said Brian Williams, Duke’s Transportation Demand Management Coordinator. “The BFU award highlights the work of the Duke community to make riding a bike easy.”
Also boosting the bicycle-friendliness of the ACC, Georgia Institute of Technology received the highest designation of the round with a Silver award. In addition to regular bicycling classes and rides led by the university president, Georgia Tech took the innovative step of launching the viaCycle campus bike sharing system. “Biking not only enhances mobility, it also has positive environmental and health benefits for our campus community,” said Georgia Tech president, G. P. “Bud” Peterson.
- Boise State’s Cycle Learning Center
In the West, Boise State University moved up to a Silver award for a range of impressive programs, including a new Cycle Learning Center. “The CLC provides a central, hands-on learning environment that empowers campus users to bicycle through education programs, instructional clinics and support services,” said JC Porter, Assistant Director of Transportation at Boise State.
The BFU provides the roadmap and technical assistance to create great campuses for cycling — to apply or learn more, visit www.bikeleague.org/university.
Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director
Carolyn joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. In addition to managing the League's blog, magazine and other communications, Carolyn organized the first National Women's Bicycling Summit and launched the League's newest program: Women Bike. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.
Subscribe
March 28th, 2012 at 2:21 pm
Every time you announce more universities and I look at the list, I wonder, “where are all the small liberal arts colleges?”
Have you every considered that there is something about your selection criteria that makes it particularly difficult for small colleges to participate?
March 28th, 2012 at 3:00 pm
Hi Josh,
Thanks. We would definitely love to see more too, but haven’t received very many applications from small liberal arts schools. We are always thinking of new ways to lower the barriers to participate in the program. This year we have launched a more streamlined application and shared more best practices in the resource library with the goal of making applying (and bike -project implementation) easier.
Smaller campuses can really have great bicycle-friendly results even with small investments.
Chatham University in Pittsburgh received a bronze BFU designation in 2011 and is the is the smallest school with the BFU designation (2270 students)
March 31st, 2012 at 4:20 am
I love this campaign! I’ve been highly successful canvassing with the NYC-centered Bike Friendly Business campaign, affiliated with Transportation Alternatives and their new Biking Rules! campaign.
We will soon be hosting a workshop at TA HQ in NYC to train other canvassers in the techniques I used so that many more people can sign up many more businesses!
I was poking around your site and started to read about your Bike Friendly Univ. program and really liked it. I’ve reached out to the students in the (neighboring) Pratt Institute Environmental Club, and as a part-time grad student at Brooklyn College, I will be trying to join up with the already existing Biking Club to see if they want to work with me on this project. Any tips?
Thanks for all your good work!
Ben Kintisch
April 6th, 2012 at 8:30 am
[...] of a BFU: How Michigan Became a Bike Friendly Campus ShareLast month, the League announced its latest round of Bicycle Friendly University awards and the news took flight on Twitter. Students and staff tweeted the good news and, yes, a bit of [...]