Nothing makes your day start poorly like being honked and yelled at by angry drivers who don’t understand what you’re doing on a bicycle on their road, making them drive a little more slowly and cautiously - or sometimes not. My wife was recently hit by a car while on her bicycle. Luckily she wasn’t injured and the driver was extremely kind about the whole thing. If our city had more bike lanes, more conveniently located bike racks and a general atmosphere that encouraged cycling, maybe that particular diver would have been more used to seeing cyclists and been a bit more careful.

     As a colleague recently pointed out, most bikers (and by bikers I mean cyclists, not gangs of scary bearded men hogging the road, although they can in some cases be one and the same) understand what it’s like to drive a car, but most drivers don’t understand what it’s like to ride a bike in traffic. What can make the difference between a good and bad biking experience is intentionally biker friendly infrastructure. Plans which incorporate the needs of cyclists have the double effect of encouraging biking as well as making the driving public more aware of bikers in general.

     A new AASHE member’s resource, Campus Bicycle Plans, offers good examples of schools which have tried to make their campuses bike-friendly. The environmental benefits of biking are obvious. Having fewer cars on the road means less pollution and, let’s face it, no one really likes cars anyway; all that noise and road rage and sitting in traffic and looking for parking…who needs it? Hopefully our new Campus Bicycle Plans resource will help your campus choose to encourage biking and change the world one happy cyclist at a time.

Justin Mullikin
AASHE Intern