On any given day — and in almost any type of weather — the numerous bicyclists who navigate the roads that circumscribe campus have become a unique feature that distinguishes the University from many colleges across the nation.
“It seems like everyone rides their bikes here,” said Madeline Wayhan, a University junior architecture major. “It’s a lot easier to get around on a bike than by driving a car or walking because the campus is big enough that you don’t necessarily want to walk everywhere. It’s a hassle to drive to campus, so biking is really the best alternative solution to that.”
In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2009 American Community Survey revealed that nearly 11 percent of people in Eugene commute to work by bike, earning it the highest bike-commuter rate in the nation for a city of its size. To bolster this distinction, the League of American Bicyclists recently gave the University a silver award for being one of the most bike-friendly college campuses in the nation, eclipsing other well-known universities such as Cornell University, Boise State University and University of California at Los Angeles.
“(The University does) a really good job in drawing bicycling into the academic sphere,” said Carly Sieff, a Bicycle Friendly America program assistant. “By teaching students about bicycling, and through the empowerment of learning, the environmental and economic benefits, it seems like they’re doing a good job at balancing the academic sphere and drawing bicycling into that.”  
Sieff said 2010 was the first year the League of American Bicyclists implemented its rating scale, in which applicants are judged on five different criteria: engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation and planning. In all, 32 schools applied for consideration, but only 20 of them received awards.
Among the University’s bike-oriented programs and measures, Sieff lauded the UO Bike Program’s do-it-yourself maintenance shop, the use of roundabouts as a good way to prevent on-campus traffic and the numerous academic programs involving bike usage, such as classes that discuss the implementation and creation of bicycle planning systems.
However, Sieff suggested the University should consider creating incentive programs for campus-goers to ride their bikes, such as the one at platinum-ranked Stanford University, which offers cash to students and staff members as a way to encourage increased bike use on campus. Steve Mital, the University’s Office of Sustainability director, said federal incentive programs are already being offered to University faculty and staff members, who can receive a tax deduction of several hundred dollars if they can provide evidence that they regularly commute to work by bicycle. But, Mital explained, there is a trade-off that offers the University community unlimited access to the city’s public transportation.
“You can either provide your faculty and staff with incentives to ride their bikes or incentives to ride the bus, and the University of Oregon has chosen the bus option by providing free bus passes to faculty and staff,” Mital said. “So, (cash incentives) are something that other institutions are taking advantage of because they are not providing free bus passes for their faculty.”

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