By: Arden Wynn
FAYETTEVILLE- Ark.,- Being a college student, you are immediately thrown into the real world of having to budget your time and spendings. College is already so expensive, with textbooks, living, and social life. Why add onto that load with something as expensive and unnecessary as parking? Being in the natural state, it only seems fit to be biking to campus for students’ choice of transportation.
The University of Arkansas offers multiple amenities such as, designated paved bike roads, a bike shop on campus, and even mountain bike trails just on the side of campus. The Bicycle and Pedestrian Programs Coordinator, Dane Eifling, said, “We have actually done side to side testings, and biking to class is much easier and faster. You can find a bike rack at almost every building on campus, making getting around for students much more convenient.”
University of Arkansas Senior, Larkin Harris, has never bought a parking pass his past four years here, and has no regrets. Harris said, “the best part about being able to bike to class is that waking up late isn’t an issue. You will still make it to class on time. You can just put your bike on one of the bike racks and go on into class without a long walk.”
It shows that more people are following the trend of biking to class. A recent statistic given by the Sustainability Office on campus said that a teacher or student will bike to class more than 2 days a week. Having access to bikes all around campus from the bike share company, VeoRide, is making that number increase even more. VeoRide came to the U of A last year, and has already recorded around 100,000 bike rides just from this campus. The University VeoRide program ranks number one in ridership within the companies 36 cities across the U.S.
The University was given the Silver Bicycle Friendly Award last year by the League of American Bicyclists. This nationally recognized organization grants these awards based on education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation. Eifling stated that this year we are going for nothing but the gold.