Media contact: Yvonne Taunton
The University of Alabama at Birmingham has received the 2018 Bronze Bicycle Friendly University award, a four-year designation from the League of American Bicyclists that recognizes its success in promoting safe, accessible bicycling on campus.
“I’m so glad to see UAB’s commitment to encouraging bicycling honored by the League of American Bicyclists,” said Julie Price, manager of UAB Sustainability. “This is just another step in creating a more sustainable and healthy future for our campus.”
Recipients of BFU Bronze awards are recognized for taking important steps to achieve what the League calls the five E’s of bicycle-friendly campuses: engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation. The standards for attaining a BFU award are high, according to League Executive Director Bill Nesper.
“Universities are in a unique leadership position to help encourage people of all ages — especially young people — to adopt healthy, sustainable habits that can benefit them throughout their lives,” Nesper said.
UAB Transportation is always working to make UAB’s campus more accessible for cyclists, Price says. New bike lanes have been added to sections of 10th Avenue South, beginning this past October, and cyclists are encouraged to voluntarily register their bikes with UAB Transportation to help authorities locate and return stolen bikes or identify owners of ones that are impounded. Students who register their bikes receive a free helmet and U-lock.
Employees or students who work in non-patient-care buildings also can park their bicycles in private offices, according to UAB’s policy on bicycle and other wheeled mobility devices. Bike owners who work in buildings that offer patient care or do not have private offices can park their bicycles in one of hundreds of bike racks on campus, and School of Medicine cyclists can stow their bikes in one of 22 bike lockers on the ground-floor plaza of Lister Hill Library.