According to Bike Ambassador Derwood Mayfield, there are only two universities in Texas to be named a Bronze Bicycle Friendly University: Texas Tech and the University of Texas.
On Nov. 25, Tech was presented with the Bronze Bicycle Friendly University award on behalf of the League of American Bicyclists.
The next levels are silver, gold, platinum and diamond, but diamond has yet to be earned anywhere. University Parking Services Director Eric Crouch sits on the Tech Bicycle Coordinating Committee and said while he is extremely proud for having earned bronze in such a short time period, his sights are already set on the next four levels.
“There are some universities and some of our peers who have taken 20 to 25 years to get this designation,” Crouch said. “It took us four.”
Crouch said it took a mere 6 months for the committee to construct the master plan from which they’ve been working since to improve Tech’s bicycling system. He said they’ve been working with very limited financial resources.
“We would get around $80,000 a year but a quarter of that is what paints our bike lines, so you’re looking at around $60,000 a year,” he said. “It cost $100,000 just to build one of the 5 bike pads we’ve installed.”
According to Mayfield, UC Davis in California is one of the two universities in the country to earn platinum, but they have been building their bicycle program for over 40 years. He said they have financial cooperation not only from the university, but the county and city as well.
Crouch said he wants to make improvements on the major intersections leading into campus, such as 19th and Flint, 19th and Boston, Broadway and University and Glenna Goodacre and University. There is a high density of bicycles that cross those intersections, but these dangerous intersections are considered state property, he said. TxDot is responsible for making these crossings bicycle friendly, but they are also financially constricted, according to Crouch.
“I represent Tech at a legislative summit every year in D.C. and transportation money is one of the hottest topics on the table right now,” Crouch said. “The state only has so many resources that they can spend and it’s all subsidized by the federal government. About four years ago, they cut transportation money by about 70 percent and it hurt a lot.”
Still, the bicycle committee has made swift accomplishments., Crouch said. Bicycle access was brought to campus sidewalks, taking Tech from about three miles of shared bicycle access to 63 miles he said. Parking capacity has increased from 6,000 to 8,000 bicycles, Crouch said.
“We’ve maintained about 90 to 95 percent capacity of those bicycle parking areas, which means that approximately 20 to 25 percent of our student body ride,” Crouch said. “The industry standard is 15 percent, so we’re ahead of the curve there.”
He said the master plan’s two facets are infrastructure and education, and he plans on pushing hard on the education piece in the near future. At the plan’s beginning stages, student feedback reflected that infrastructure implementation should take immediate priority since they did not have enough funding to do both. Crouch said.
Mayfield said the education facet is important because of bicyclist safety.
“It’s not just teaching someone how to ride a bicycle, you’ve got to teach the folks who are driving how to operate around them,” said Mayfield. “It’s an awareness thing.”
An avid bicyclist himself at age 92, Mayfield said there are tremendous benefits in biking as opposed to driving or riding the bus. He said biking not only saves students parking costs, but for each vehicle taken off campus, 12 bicycles can fit in its space.
“You can lose weight and stay in great physical condition so the doctors love it,” said Mayfield. “You save a lot of money in gas and since you take 3,000 miles off a vehicle, you end up saving money in wear-and-tear costs. When students have to ride to school, it gets their blood pumping so they’re in class awake and invigorated.”
About Sasha Wilson
