Are U on a bicycle-friendly campus?

At the Pro-walk/Pro-bike conference in Chattanooga last month, we announced the official launch of the Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) program. Like the Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC), the Bicycle Friendly State (BFS), and the Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) programs do for their areas, the university program will recognize the way colleges and universities encourage and improve campus sustainability, connectivity, quality of life and personal health.

Campuses are ideal laboratories to encourage and inspire the next generation to continue biking in post‐college life. “The program will demonstrate the many benefits of achieving aspirational levels of bicycle safety and infrastructure, while providing campuses with a roadmap to get there. It’s a win/win for everyone,” said Ariadne Delon Scott, bicycle program coordinator at Stanford University.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on the BFU launch:

The program is designed to help institutions develop holistic policies on biking. A 90-question application requires colleges to assess how much support they offer cyclists—for instance, by providing bike maps of the campus and including information on cycling in freshman orientation.

Applying for a bronze, silver, gold, or platinum designation through the Bicycle Friendly University program will be “an education in itself,” says Bill Nesper, director of the league’s Bicycle Friendly America program. The campus program aims to encourage colleges to evaluate how useful on-campus bike paths can be, whether university parking policies and fees encourage or discourage cycling as an alternative to commuting by car, and how serious campus police are about bike theft and safe cycling.

Institutions interested in being in the very first class of Bicycle Friendly Universities should review this university scorecard to see if they are bicycle-friendly and follow these tips to bike-friendliness. The online application will be available soon.

For more information, contact Carly Sieff at Carly (at) Bikeleague (dot) org or 202-822-133 ext. 233.