Arkansas State University at Jonesboro has joined the official ranks of the nation's most welcoming places to ride a bicycle.
ASU's embrace of cycling was proclaimed to the nation Wednesday when the League of American Bicyclists announced its 2014 roster of Bicycle Friendly Universities. The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville also applied for the designation, earning an honorable mention.
ASU sought the ranking after taking steps to make cycling safer and more convenient on campus, including marking traffic routes and creating a master plan for future programming and infrastructure improvements.
"The primary reason was to try to foster more healthy lifestyles and the type of transportation options that we see millennials wanting," says Bill Smith, executive director of marketing for ASU. "We read the surveys, we see the data, and more and more of them are using a bicycle not just as a recreational object but as a transportation option.
"You add that to the fact that our campus, in closing off certain roads for construction projects and building a more pedestrian-oriented core also left a lot of distance to be covered. From some of our residence areas to some of our key instructional buildings, really, the best way to get around is to do it on bicycle."
Based on its answers to an extensive questionnaire, ASU scored at the league's bronze level for friendliness, the first of four increasingly difficult to attain metallic honors. Next up the ladder are silver, gold and platinum. Sixty schools attained bronze, says Amelia Neptune, who coordinates the program for the league in Washington, D.C. Only two of the 100 universities on the list rank as platinum, Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and the University of California-Davis.
Among other bronze schools in the region are Texas Tech University at Lubbock and the University of Texas at Austin, Oklahoma State University at Stillwater and the University of Oklahoma at Norman.
"For the bronze level," Neptune says, "we look at what we call the five E's. That's education, encouragement, engineering, enforcement, evaluation and planning. To get the bronze award, you need to be doing something in all of those categories and really excelling in any one of those categories."
Neptune says she was impressed by several items on ASU's application, including its master plan, bike sharing on campus, the marked roads and multiuse paths the school terms "PAC paths" (Pedestrian and Cyclist paths) and the master plan's task force, which will become a permanent advisory committee and meet every term.
She praised the school's participation in citywide bicycle advocacy, which was described in a video she enjoyed watching. "That sort of larger advocacy for biking across the state is admirable and the kind of leadership we look for in Bicycle Friendly Universities," she says.
Smith says ASU intends to be a "thought leader" for northeastern Arkansas on the use of human-powered transportation as a tool for reducing obesity, diabetes and other health problems. "Where other cities in Arkansas have been bike friendly communities and then their universities have been a part of that, we want to approach it from the other way: We want to be the bike-friendly university that then helps influence our community."
Neptune also liked a pamphlet, "Bring Your Bike to Campus," which is given to everyone who buys a parking permit. Smith says the pamphlet expanded on campus law enforcement's annual safety tips insert to explain how PAC paths work, especially noting that cyclists should use them and not pedal on sidewalks. He says 16,500 of the pamphlets were printed, with 14,575 inserted into parking permit fliers and the rest placed around the community and into freshman welcome packets and recruiting material.
The league gives each applicant suggestions for improving the safety and convenience of cycling. Smith says he's looking forward to reading ASU's report. "Part of the reason for doing the program is to get that third-party assessment of what you're doing and what we can do to make things safer and better for students who want to ride and walk around campus," he says.
The bronze designation is good for four years, but Neptune says schools are encouraged to act on league feedback and apply again next year to see if they can upgrade their status.
OTHER HONOREES
The list of Bicycle Friendly Universities is online at bikeleague.org/university.
It's part of the league's larger Bicycle Friendly America program, which rates the states and honors cities and businesses for their efforts to encourage cycling and make it safer. Arkansas ranks 38th of the 50 states in the program, and four cities hold the bronze designation for friendliness: North Little Rock, Bentonville, Conway and Fayetteville.
State and local governments and businesses apply for these rankings. The state Highway and Transportation Department's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator usually submits Arkansas' application for the overall ranking.
Ranked businesses in Arkansas include Bike City of Fayetteville and Gearhead Outfitters in Jonesboro, silver; Bobby's Bike Hike in Little Rock, Garver in North Little Rock and The Ride in Conway, gold; the city of Fayetteville (as a nonprofit/governmental agency), Kimberly-Clark Corp. in Conway, and in Little Rock, Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care and Chainwheel Inc., bronze.
ActiveStyle on 10/27/2014