Sunday, August 31, 2008
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Emory’s bike bonanza

Lots of Emory University students started classes last week with a new must-have accessory: a bike...

By Megan Hodgkiss
   
Lots of Emory University students started classes last week with a new must-have accessory: a bike.

Students, faculty, and hospital staff at Emory, plus employees at the neighboring Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bring 40,000 cars to the Clifton Road area every day—feeding one of the metro area’s worst traffic jams. Bike racks on the campus have historically been rare, and mostly empty.

So about a year ago, Emory and the Clifton Community Partnership teamed up with Fuji Bicycles and nearby cycling store Bicycle South to create a free bicycle share program, and to sell discounted bicycles to students and faculty.
   
Emory itself has poured more than $250,000 into the initiative. Signs and posters all over campus challenge students and employees to ride instead of drive, with the question “Why not?” posed in eye-catching colors.

The switch, says Jamie Smith, who runs the “Bike Emory” program, is as simple as going to one of the campus checkout locations, choosing a bike and filling out a form. The free bike comes with helmet, lock and light.
   
Bike Emory also provides discounted bicycles for sale, and special offers on bikes for new Emory students. For just a couple hundred bucks, a student can snag a bike, u-lock, light and helmet. 

“We’ve sold 170 bikes at this point,” says Smith. “About 200 people are riding to work [on Bike Emory bikes] and that’s just the school’s staff … the bike racks are overflowing.”

The program covers repairs as well. Bicycle South provides mobile repair centers at two different locations on campus twice a week. Minor adjustments are made on-site at one of two blue and yellow tents. Major repairs are completed at the Bicycle South store on North Decatur Road within a couple of days.

“A lot of people are asking about the program,” says Bicycle South employee Harry Baxley. “There’s a lot of interest in riding, especially with gas prices. We’ve gotten a lot more people into the shop wanting to know about the program, the bikes, and commuting.” To answer those questions, as well as others about the cycling culture, the school has created a Web site, www.bike.emory.edu. 

Some students need only see Emory’s car-park fees to decide to bike instead. As of Sept. 1, 2007, the annual student parking fee was $624. In February 2007, the annual cost for faculty and staff was $600, and reserved spaces were $1,500. 

“Parking is a lot better here in Atlanta than in my hometown of Pittsburgh,” says doctoral candidate Sarah McEwan. “However, the parking passes here [on campus] are expensive. In that sense, bringing a bike is better.”

Freshmen are not allowed to bring cars to campus, a rule that stuck Joe O’Geen with some parking tickets. O’Geen, now a junior, thinks Bike Emory is a positive development, but he points out that Emory already has a green advantage: “Everything is walkable on campus,” he says.

Consequently, Emory’s thoroughfares can be packed with pedestrians, which poses a risk for cyclists.
   
“I own a lot of bikes, but I don’t plan on bringing them on campus. There’s a lot of pedestrians, just a lot of people. I don’t want to cut someone off, and I don’t want my bike stolen,” says sophomore Robert Stuhn.

Recently, the Princeton Review ranked the nation’s top “green colleges.” Both Emory University and Georgia Tech scored 99 points or higher on the 100-point green scale. They are two of only 11 colleges in the U.S. able to claim that score.
   
“We hope that we can get a significant number of people out of their cars and onto bicycles … we don’t have to be so car-centric,” says Bike Emory’s Smith. “We are trying to create a great network of alternative transportation.” SP