The League of American Bicyclists has awarded the
University of Memphis the designation of Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) at the bronze level.
The UofM joins a group of colleges and universities across the United States that are transforming their campuses and their surrounding communities. There are now 127 BFUs in 42 states and Washington, D.C.
The UofM operates the Tiger Bike program, which allows students, faculty and staff to check out bikes for transportation or recreation. The program helps reduce the University’s carbon footprint and promotes exercise as a way to stay healthy. The annual Tiger Blues Goes Green sustainability day features a “Bike to Campus Day” ride each fall. For the first time this year, the UofM’s Earth Day celebration included an All Things Bike Fest, with a bicycle parade, bike safety and repair demonstrations, and “bike blender smoothies.”
The application for the designation was developed last fall by students in the Department of City and Regional Planning’s Project Planning Studio course. The course was led by Kyle Wagenschutz, the city of Memphis’ Bikeway/Pedestrian Program manager and UofM planning alumnus, who served as an adjunct faculty member.
“In addition to preparing the application material, the students focused on bicycling improvements in and around the University and developed a series of short-term and long-term recommendations in The Bicycle Friendly University: Technical Review report,” said Dr. Charles Santo, chair of City and Regional Planning. “The classroom approach to preparing the BFU application has been adopted as a best practice by League of American Bicyclists and has become a model for other universities. The Bicycle Friendly University: Technical Review was also given the Best Student Project Award by the Tennessee chapter of the American Planning Association.”
Wagenschutz was recently honored by the White House as part of the Champions for Change program in the Innovators in Transportation category, and was the keynote speaker at the Bike Futures conference in Melbourne, Australia.
“In its fourth year, we’ve seen the Bicycle Friendly University program reach an exciting level of growth and momentum, as more and more campuses support bicycling in new and innovative ways,” said Amelia Neptune, the League’s Bicycle Friendly University program manager. “From bike storage inside dorm rooms to bicycle-powered music festivals, we applaud this round of BFUs for raising the standard of what a bicycle-friendly campus looks like.”
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