Monica Black ‘19
Many CC students, faculty, and staff know that campus is a great place to be a bike enthusiast, but now CC has finally received formal recognition: Colorado College has been named a “Bicycle Friendly University” by the League of American Bicyclists. Factors such as CC’s 1:1 bike rack to student ratio, a student-run bike co-op, and the bike rental program all played into the decision. The ranking also included a space for testimonials from students on the friendliness of the campus bike culture.
Although CC received praise for its current biking culture, unique challenges remain for those who get around on two wheels. Most of the throughways around campus are city streets, so CC’s ability to make an impact on crossings and bike lanes is minimal. Additionally, the campus is isolated from many of the business centers in sprawling Colorado Springs because many busy municipal roads lack bike lanes.
But, Ian Johnson, director of th
e Office of Sustainability, who submitted CC for bike-friendly campus recognition, said he’s looking eagerly toward the future. “As CC is a major part of the downtown biking culture, we’ve embarked on a feasibility study with [the city of Colorado Springs] and other key stakeholders to develop a bike share program that suits both the city and our campus, to help tie us more closely to the community,” said Johnson. This program aims to help connect the college to Old Colorado City, Manitou Springs, and University Village, and encourages the culture of biking among a student body, which sometimes claims “you need a car in the Springs.”
Students, staff, and faculty will play the biggest role in further adopting bike culture into campus life. “The biggest thing that people can do is to bike to work and class regularly, and let us know what sorts of challenges they’re facing,” said Johnson. “It’s not for the sake of a designation, but for the benefit of the real users on our campus.”
The picture of bikes buried in snow demonstrates the limits of CC’s bike-friendliness. When I dropped my daughter off at CC freshman year, I bought her a nice new bike. That bike now sits out in the rain and snow, 24/7, because there is no protected place in or around her dorm to leave it. If CC were really serious about biking, it would build bike shelters.
I applaud CC’s efforts to become more bike friendly. The mindset that claims “you need a car in the Springs” must be challenged. Riding in a car is never an enjoyable or rewarding experience for me. Riding a bicycle almost always is. It’s telling that the picture chosen to highlight the story shows bikes covered in snow. I see CC has a long way to go become more bicycle friendly. Covered parking can really extend the life of a bike. Congratulations on your designation and I wish you all the best in your efforts to become even more bicycle friendly. A worthy undertaking indeed.
Thanks for your comments Jesse and John, you’re both spot on – one of our challenges and the areas for improvement in our application certainly was weather-related. Colorado College is an active, outdoor community and that is reflected in the year-round biking that happens both on our campus for transportation as well as off for recreation (fat bikes are ubiquitous year-round on the trails around the Springs!). This year has certainly seen no shortage of precipitation in our area, and that creates challenges and issues with outdoor bike storage. Over the past two decades this has not been the normal, and by and large Colorado Springs remains a semi-arid place where precipitation presents far fewer challenges than many other areas of the country.
That said, I know many people would like to have covered storage for their bikes. The question we grapple with is how to provide that equitably among our students, faculty, and staff. It would be difficult to provide covered parking for all 2000+/- students (I’m sure you noticed that one of our highlights was the 1:1 student/bike rack ratio). If we don’t have covered parking for 2000 bikes, who gets those spaces? Are people willing to pay for a covered parking space? If so, what about the students who cannot afford a covered space – and are likely more reliant on bicycles as a primary form of transportation? Where would the covered parking be that is both conducive to uninterrupted daily use and consistent with our Campus Master Plan? These are not insurmountable challenges, but proposed solutions to these challenges (as with nearly every challenge on our campus and in our society) are often not as simple as they seem and have additional impacts – good and bad, anticipated and not.
I assure everyone that biking is taken as a serious mode of transport at CC. We’ve had more challenges in this regard due to our changing weather patterns and as a result CC will likely need to provide some form of covered parking in the future. In making strides to be even friendlier, however, we want to make sure we provide services and solutions that are equitable, long-lived, and in the spirit of the rest of our plans and ethics. I welcome comments and suggestions from our community that may help us get there.
As a student during the Great 10-Speed Boom of the late ’60s, I kept a bike on campus. Even though I was familiar with the city streets, getting anywhere but Garden of the Gods was just scary, and it sounds like that is changing only slowly. Here in East Lansing, Michigan State University is leading the way but local communities have begun to follow in earnest, with new bike trails and bike lanes appearing every year. With over 20,000 bikes on campus, MSU struggles with covered storage, just as CC does. CC and other schools can lead the way by showing what can be done. Congratulations on the bicycle-friendly award!
You have new dorms in the design phase. Is covered bicycle parking included in that design? This can be done with overhangs or basements or canvas type awnings. Uncovered outdoor parking can also be used for bikes designed to withstand the elements. Choosing the fleet of rental bikes or bike-share bikes wisely could mean that a significant number of bikes wouldn’t need covered parking. Keep CC biking!
Another detraction from CC’s bike friendliness is the extremely high theft rate — an issue that undoubtedly would be mitigated by better storage facilities.
Thank you for your response, Melissa. Historically high numbers of reported bike thefts on campus lead us to conduct an assessment of our bike safety practices on campus during the 2010-2011 academic year. That assessment resulted in two programs aimed at addressing the problem. Our primary anti-bike theft campaign is called “U-Lock or I Steal”. It encourages cyclists on campus to use hardened steel U-locks to secure their bikes rather than standard cable locks. Nearly every bike theft reported to the department this year was from a bike that was not properly secured at a bike rack with a u-lock. We also realized that we needed to make CC a less appealing target for bike thieves. This lead to our “Bait Bike” program, which uses GPS to track several bikes deployed around campus. If one of those bikes leaves a pre-determined geo-fence, the system sends an alert to Campus Safety and CSPD and provides officers with real-time tracking, down to the direction and speed of travel. Since the inception of these programs, more than twenty felony arrests have been made and we have realized a decrease in bike thefts on campus by 80%. We are committed to creating an environment on campus where cyclists feel safe, and will continue to explore new and better ways to address bike theft at CC.