Students with the UO Bike Program — along with Campus Operations and University Department of Public Safety — are working toward making campus a safer and easier place to bike. The first in a series of renovations took place Sept. 12 when Campus Operations laid bike road-share markers on East 13th Avenue.
Efforts to improve the campus cycling infrastructure began after the University received a silver ranking for campus bike friendliness from the League of American Bicyclists @@ http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/bicyclefriendlyuniversity/index.php @@. UO Bike Program coordinator Ted Sweeney and former Bike Program coordinator Brianna Orr were the students who nominated the University for the award, and both think the ranking can be raised with a few improvements to campus streets and pathways.
“When we were going through the (bike-friendliness ranking) application process, it asked us if we had signs, road markers and other types of infrastructure for cyclists, which we had none of, and we thought: ‘Why don’t we?’” Sweeney said.
Sweeney and Orr have dug up a plan for improving bike infrastructure that has been sitting untouched by the school administration since 1991.
“It is odd that simple, necessary, and planned improvements to the bike network were not applied for 20 years until students took an interest,” Sweeney said. “With more leadership and commitment from the administration, I know the UO can catch up with its peers as a national leader in promoting affordable and sustainable campus transportation that preserves our campus land as well as the health of our community.”
The plans include the placement of about 30 bike road-share arrows, or “sharrows”, on campus streets, 44 walk signs designating zones reserved for pedestrians, 24 wayfinding signs with travel times to common destinations, and many other dinner-plate-sized sharrows on smaller paths throughout campus.
The UO Bike Program has had ample support from university departments such as Public Safety and Campus Operations. Both departments gave a combined $8,500 in support for the plan.
“This (plan) is definitely necessary for a campus with an expanding bike community,” said Exterior Maintenance Supervisor Garrick Mishaga.
Sweeney and Orr also sought support back in March from the ASUO in the form of over-realized funds.
“We thought that this was a really great cause for these funds to be going to because campus is getting more and more students, but the paths aren’t getting any wider,” Orr said.
Sweeney and Orr pitched their plan to the ASUO Senate for a grant of $17,000 to pay for the new developments. ASUO Senator Molly Bacon was present at Monday’s laying of the first sharrows, and she fully supported the bike infrastructure plan when it was presented to the ASUO last spring.
“I remember when Brianna and Ted came in to pitch their plan (to ASUO),” Bacon said, “and I felt that it was a great idea and it would be great for this campus.”
The process of physically carrying out the plan has begun, and Campus Operations hopes to complete the plan by mid-October. Orr, Sweeney and the rest of the people and groups involved with the project are excited to see the plan finally coming together.
“It has been empowering for me as a student to see that my good ideas and interests can lead to real change on campus,” Sweeney said. “I don’t think that would be possible at smaller schools, where there are fewer resources and less energy.”
The UO Department of Public Safety will be on the front lines of bike safety education this fall. An informative brochure on campus bike regulations will be distributed throughout the fall, at campus events and in the dorms during freshman move-in.
“For the first month of the term, our officers will be making stops on bicycles violating those rules and using that month as a period of education and again handing out the informational brochure,” Public Safety Lieutenant Herbert Horner said. “We are going to be emphasizing safety for everyone, pedestrians, skateboarders, and cyclist.”
The updated bike infrastructure is expected to lower pedestrian/cyclist accidents and to help reduce traffic on heavily traveled routes throughout campus. Both safety education efforts and improved infrastructure are planned to cushion the influx of growth in the bicycle community here at UO.