Stanford awarded high honors as a bicycle-friendly university – again

Stanford recently received a 2015 Platinum Bicycle Friendly University Award from the League of American Bicyclists, the highest designation in the award program.

It is the second time Stanford has received the platinum award for its bicycling program from the league, which hands out the awards – bronze, silver, gold and platinum – every four years.

In 2011, when the program began, Stanford was the only university that received a platinum award. This year, three other universities joined Stanford at the top of the podium.

In a blog post on the league’s website, ARIADNE DELON SCOTT, Stanford’s bicycle program coordinator, wrote: “How did we retain our platinum designation for the second consecutive time? We expanded on the traditional five ‘E’s of any successful bicycle program (engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation) and added two more: environment and engagement.”

In the new “environment” category, Scott said 21 university departments now have bike share programs that offer more than 130 bicycles to employees. In the new “engagement” category, Scott said Stanford hosted the first Corporate Bike Forum in partnership with Bikes Make Life Better. The event drew more than 30 leading Silicon Valley businesses to discuss challenges they face with their bicycle programs and share best practices.

Over the last four years, Stanford also has removed 100 parking spaces and added a mile of new bike lanes; installed three new roundabouts; increased bike-parking capacity to more than 19,000 spaces; achieved a 39 percent increase in participation in Bike to Work Day; and installed two contra-flow bike lanes. In addition, the university constructed the Stanford Perimeter Trail, a 3.4-mile trail for walkers, joggers and bicyclists that provides an important connection to city and county trails, local parks, schools and other destinations.

“Our commitment to expanding and improving our bicycle program continues, because we know that when colleges and universities invest in bicycling, great things happen: more people ride, we decrease our carbon footprint, reduce health care costs, connect to community and tip the culture toward more sustainable and safe commute options,” Scott said.

“We salute the league for investing in the Bicycle Friendly America programs, and we thank them for an award that is inspiring meaningful transformation in bicycle programs in our communities and across the nation.”