“More bikes mean less cars, less cars mean less traffic and pollution and reduced demand for parking,” said Bill Brown, the university director of sustainability. “Bicycle-friendly campuses are safer campuses.”
The League of American Bicyclists ranks the city of Bloomington as a silver-level bicycle-friendly community, and it ranks IU as a bronze-level bicycle-friendly university.
Brown said creating more bike lanes and bike paths has contributed to positive change on campus that made bicycling safer and more convenient and prevented conflicts between different forms of transportation.
The Office of Sustainability is working on upgrading IU’s campus to silver-level standards, Brown said.
“We will receive a gap analysis from the League of American Bicyclists this week that will make recommendations for how to get to the next level,” Brown said. “The last gap analysis recommended a bicycle master plan. Implementation of that plan will help us get to the next level.”
The Bicycle Master Plan is a byproduct of IU’s efforts to meet the objectives outlined in the 2010 Campus Master Plan, as well as the Office of Sustainability’s 2020 Vision.
The Campus Master Plan maps the development of campus infrastructure, landscape and character. The plan lists several proposed sustainability measures, including an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.
The 2020 Vision, which lists 20 goals for increasing sustainability, includes a call to reduce the demand for single occupancy vehicles on campus by 20 percent.
Students who plan to park their bicycle on campus are required by university regulations to register their bike with the IU Office of Parking Operations.
The one-time registration fee of $10 is put toward improving bike facilities on campus, according to the Office of Parking Operations website.
The Office of Parking Operations’ website provides information regarding bicycling at IU, including where and how to register your bike, parking locations, bike regulations, bike dealers and repair, bike auctions and local cycling events.
Hilary Horrey, the project coordinator at the Office of Sustainability, said the Office of Sustainability has one of the strongest outreach initiatives on the campus.
While the staff is comprised of four employees, Horrey said the seven working groups, 16 interns and various other student workers make the office as strong as it is.
“Our core mission is to educate the campus and city community to thrive within their means to achieve balance among environmental health, economic prosperity and social equity,” Horrey said.
The Office of Sustainability emphasizes the importance of making developments that meet the needs of the present but do not compromise the ability of future generations to do the same.
“Sustainability is an all-encompassing discipline and can be utilized in many aspects of the IU system,” Smith said. “Our goal is to achieve this outward growth at the campus level and move to the community, state, nation and world-wide.”
