Kudos to a group of UCF students seeking to gain national recognition of their campus as a Bicycle Friendly University (BFU). This move will raise UCF’s profile as a school that supports bike use among students, staff and faculty by providing bike lanes, bike sharing and a bike-repair shop on campus.
According to this story in the Orlando Sentinel, six students planned to submit a BFU application to the League of American Bicyclists. “The Bicycle Friendly University program evaluates applicants’ efforts to promote bicycling in five primary areas: engineering, encouragement, education, enforcement and evaluation/planning,” the league’s website says. Florida State University and the universities of Miami, Florida and South Florida are the only BFU-designated colleges in Florida.
The UCF students’ initiative comes as bike-pedestrian safety near UCF has become a major concern. A 2016 Florida Department of Transportation study found that the rate of pedestrian crashes on Alafaya Trail was more than four times higher than the Florida average. In November 2016, Orange County government and UCF agreed to make safety enhancements to stretches of Alafaya Trail, University Boulevard and McCulloch Road near UCF. Click here to read more about the UCF bike-ped safety project.
These efforts at UCF are part of a national trend recognizing the growing popularity of bicycling as basic transportation. But they also complement core principles BWCF has sought to promote: Increase awareness of the benefits of bike riding and advocate for safe passageways for people on bike and foot.
Read the full story from Orlando Sentinel here.
