The University’s bronze-level award, given out by the League of American Bicyclists, was based on evaluations of what the league calls the “Five ‘E’s”: engineering, encouragement, education, enforcement and evaluation and planning.
“Bicycles provide a simple solution to many of the complex problems that institutions face, including issues around mobility, space, health and economics,” the league’s website states.
As part of the new recognition, UNM will be creating a Bicycle Safety Committee to look for new ways the campus can increase awareness and safety for students who commute to school on bikes, said Noel Ortiz, coordinator of the campus Outdoor and Bicycle Shop, who will sit on the new committee.
“The Bicycle Safety Committee is nationwide, and they look at campuses that are incorporating awareness in regard to bicycle use on campus, and that entails both as a means of transportation and safety,” Ortiz said. “Being alert of your surroundings, pathways, bicycle routes — hopefully, a university would take that and incorporate it into the campus.”
The committee, which hopes to launch in the spring, will try to encourage UNM to work with city government with regard to reorganizing and restructuring certain pathways that lead to the campus that can be friendlier to bicycles, skateboards and other alternative modes of transportation, Ortiz said.
The committee will be receiving support from the League of American Bicycles in the form of free tools and technical assistance, according to UNM.
“Hopefully we can maturate it into something that sustains itself,” Ortiz said.
Cheap access to bicycle repairs is one of the major factors the league looks at when recognizing universities, and UNM’s Outdoor and Bicycle Shop is a valuable resource for cash-strapped students who ride to school, said Vaughn Carty, junior environmental science major and Bicycle Shop employee.
“We do everything: full-service bike repair, rentals of bikes,” Carty said. “Mostly what we get here are changing tubes and fixing flats, but we are a full-service repair shop, and we have some very experienced people on the staff.”
The shop is located on the east side of Johnson Gym, across from the field, and is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Carty has been repairing bikes for six years at various shops, and commutes about 6.5 miles a day to and from school, he said.
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Since the shop gets funding from student fees and campus Recreational Services, Carty said they can offer many of their services for 25 to 50 percent cheaper than the average bike shop.
Prices for a new tube, including installation, will only set students back $3, compared to $8 down the street at the Bike Coop.
“I think UNM is pretty bike-friendly,” Carty said. “We’ve got a ton of bike racks around, and they do have some form of bike education, like how to ride properly around campus. Since there’s no real parking on campus, biking is a much more friendly form of transportation, especially for people who live across the street in the student ghetto, and who live a few miles from campus. They’re more apt to choose a bike over a car to get to school.”
Fellow employee Max Shilvock, a senior community and regional planning major, agreed. He rides to school and back every day from Central Avenue and Broadway Boulevard, and he said it’s a much more sensible choice for students to get around.
“It’s great exercise, you don’t pollute the environment with greenhouse gas emissions from an automobile, you don’t stress out from waiting in traffic, it’s faster than cars sometimes, and you get to enjoy the weather, even when it’s cold,” Shilvock said. “You don’t have to pay for parking, and it’s fun, too.”
Jason Phillips, a senior biology and psychology dual major, said he saves a lot of time and hassle riding to school, but said that the University needs to step up when it comes to security, citing the rising number of bike thefts on campus.
“I carry a cable as well as a hard U-lock with me just for the wheels, because I don’t want them taken,” he said. “They need to put cameras around the areas that thefts are happening. It doesn’t seem too hard.”
Recreational Services is currently holding its Wheels for Meals charity food drive, where a donation of non-perishable food will earn students a chance to win a new cruiser bike. Carty said the food will be donated to a local charity to help with their Thanksgiving meal for Albuquerque’s homeless. Donations can be dropped off at the Outdoor and Bicycle Shop.
Jonathan Baca is the news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @JonGabrielB.
