At Yale University, a typical morning bustles with bike commuters on its largely car-free campus roads. A recently honored Gold-level Bicycle Friendly University, Yale has all kinds of programs and perks encouraging bike riding on campus. And it is definitely not alone.

Across the country, college campuses are going green with bicycles. And just like football or hackathon, a little bit of healthy competition is motivating and uniting university communities to make a healthier earth one ride at a time.

Bicycle-friendly campuses

Piloted by the League of American Bicyclists in 2011, Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) is a program that recognizes universities for their bicycle-friendly campuses with honors, ranging from bronze to platinum, as well as honorable mentions. As of 2017, there are 182 BFUs spread across 45 states and Washington D.C.

Every year, universities submit an extensive application for their bicycle-friendly campuses to be considered for awards. The league evaluates applications based on the following five areas: engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation or planning.

Whether selected or not, universities receive feedbacks from the league to guide them where and how to improve. Every four years, to either retain the award received or move up to a higher award, universities need to submit another application highlighting the improvements.

“The program is a valuable way to benchmark our progress from year to year and learn from peer institutions,” said Brianne Mullen, Yale’s Urban Sustainability Program Associate. “The Bicycle Friendly University application process is particularly helpful for identifying strategies we might try in the future to become even more bike friendly.”

Yale has been a BFU since 2012 when it achieved Bronze-level status. Two years later, it reached Silver status. Currently, it is one of only 20 universities in the country with the Gold-level designation.

Yale’s commitment

A bicycle-friendly campus fits in with Yale’s larger commitment to be environmentally responsible and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

“With the establishment of the Yale Office of Sustainability in 2005 and Yale Transportation Options in 2007, Yale University joined a growing number of institutions around the world who are acting on our collective responsibility to develop sustainable solutions that address the environmental impacts of our actions,” said Mullen. “We have set goals to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, including a goal in the Yale Sustainability Plan 2025 to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. We have worked to support sustainable transportation modes including transit (bus/train), carpooling and vanpooling, biking, and walking.”

Yale has 17 miles of bike lanes on a total of 20 miles of its campus roads and has one bike rack for every four people on campus.

“In addition to being a zero-emissions form of transportation, biking helps promote individual health and wellness and is a popular choice among students, faculty, and staff,” said Mullen. “We wanted to ensure that facilities were available on campus to help promote biking as a healthy and sustainable way to get around.”

Why now?

Bike riding on campus is definitely not a new thing. However, as sustainability becomes a bigger issue for everyone, bike riding has grown to be more than just an individual’s choice; it is one of the important platforms encouraged by university officials.

Now, being a greener campus is not only an ethical but also an enticing feature attracting numbers of prospective students. According to a survey by the Princeton Review, out of more than 10,000 teens and parents surveyed, 64 percent said knowing how committed a school is to the environment would influence their decision to apply to or attend the university.

“We’re seeing an explosion in bike activity,” Julian Dautremont-Smith, associate director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, a nonprofit association of colleges and universities, recently told the New York Times. “It seems like every week we hear about a new bike sharing or bike rental program.”

An established league like the League of American Bicyclists that can honor and guide universities properly also contributes to how strong and lasting this trend might be. For example, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a renewing Silver BFU, depends on the league’s Smart Cycling Quick Guide at campus tabling events to teach its community about the rules of the road.

Bikes uniting community

Besides the obvious benefits of reduced carbon footprint, healthy lifestyle and no gas or parking expenses, bike riding encourages universities’ two most inherent activities: collaboration and innovation.

The Yale Cycling Group is a student organization of both undergraduate and graduate scholar athletes working to promote bike riding on campus. At the Black Hills State University, the first Bronze BFU in South Dakota, the BHSU Bicycle Club promotes weekly rides throughout the year.

Also, bike riding connects campus communities with their local cities. The Yale community joins efforts with local organizations like Elm City Cycling to further promote a bike-friendly city. Yale also works with City Hall and the New Haven Police Department to tackle bike problems like local speed limits and bike theft.

“Yale’s Bike Friendly University designation would not be possible without the City of New Haven’s support and efforts to improve biking infrastructure,” Mullen told the Yale Daily News. “We’re cheering on the City as it goes for Gold-level Bicycle Friendly Community designation.”

From these kinds of collaboration, innovation follows.

In addition to being a mostly car-free campus, the University of Montana in Missoula, a renewing Gold BFU, has snow-free bike routes. The bike routes are located on pathways that are incidentally heated by the campus’s steam tunnel network, so snow doesn’t accumulate on the surface.

For the first time, the University of Oklahoma in Norman, an upgraded Silver BFU, established a group of experts to bring a better bicycling experience. This group will focus solely on evaluating issues related to bike resources, infrastructure, education and safety.

Many more are riding on, and the trend stays strong. In 2017, the League of American Bicyclists announced 46 newly added and renewing BFUs.

“From renewing Platinums to brand new Bronzes, this latest class of Bicycle Friendly University awardees show a wonderful commitment to safety, health and sustainability through their efforts to support bicycling on campus,” Amelia Neptune, director of the league’s Bicycle Friendly America Program, said in a statement.