travel | DU Transportation Center

Woman Bicycling in City Park, Denver, 1900. Photo by George Lytle Beam.

Fellow Denverites: Tomorrow (June 27, 2012) is Bike to Work Day!

This is the one day (among others) that you should feel compelled to pull your bike out of the garage, pump up the tires, grease the chain, and pedal your way to work!

There will be several breakfast and bike home stations located throughout the city (See Full Map Here), one of which will be here on the University of Denver’s Driscoll Lawn. Breakfast Stations will be open 6:30-9am, Bike Home Stations will be open 4:30-6pm.

You can learn more about Bike to Work Day from our wonderful local advocacy

organizations: Bicycle Colorado, DRCOG, and (our favorite) Transportation Solutions.

Denver Bicycle Riders, 1910. Photo by Charles S. Lillybridge.

You should also support Bike Denver at the annual Bike From Work Bash, which is held at 15th & Little Raven on June 27th, 5-9pm. There will be Free Beer, Free Music, and all-around good fun with Denver’s best cyclists and bicycle advocates. So hop on your old two-wheeler and enjoy bike to work day! (Then rinse, and repeat!)

HAPPY EARTH MONTH!!

At this month’s April DU Sustainability Council meeting, Masters of Resources Law Studies (MRLS) student Ryan McCann presented an extensive report detailing ways for DU to become a more bicycle friendly campus. In addition to being a student at the Sturm College of Law, McCann has spent the past year serving as Program Fellow with the non-profit Transportation Solutions where he has met with key stake holders and become familiar with city/local, state, national, and even international bicycle policies, laws, and best practices. While serving as Fellow, McCann was tasked with composing a report that analyzed the campus’ and city’s master bicycle plans. He then contacted universities that have been awarded/recognized as Bicycle Friendly Universities by the League of American Bicyclists and cross-referenced his information to see where DU is succeeding and what it can do better to attain Bicycle Friendly University recognition. Next month the DU Sustainability Council will meet and vote on whether to adopt the report and make further recommendations. The meeting will take place May 10^th at 8:30am in Driscoll 1880. If you missed McCann’s presentation and have yet to review his report, have a look at the attached materials.

Following his presentation McCann commented on the importance and need to provide a more bicycle friendly university,

“There is no better time than now to turn DU into one of the most bicycle friendly universities in the country. A report came out just last week titled, Transportation and the New Generation: Why Young People Are Driving Less and What It Means for Transportation Policy. The report is pure poetry for alternative transportation advocates. In 2009, 16 – 34 year olds as a whole took 24% more bike trips than they took 2001, despite the age group shrinking in size by 2%. 77% of the youth (16 – 34 y/o) plan to live in urban centers! 77%!—and I’m one of them. For the first time ever, since World War II and our nation’s sprawling development, people are starting to alter their traveling behaviors.

I think DU already does a fantastic job at promoting sustainability but one area that needs work and we are working on is getting students, staff, faculty, and employees to commute more sustainably—this means teaching users what choices they have.… and with regard to bicycling, how to be an urban bicycle commuter. DU’s campus is fertile ground for teaching this and I hope my report will help us get one step closer to being the most bicycle friendly university in the country…well at least state, let’s give CSU a run for their money.”

For questions/comments about campus bicycle friendliness, please contact McCann at his email address (rmccann@transolutions.org) or post a comment on our Transportation Center blog–we love reading your opinions, keep them coming!! 😀