Schools For Cyclists: 10 Bike-Friendly Universities

Avid cyclists, take note -- the country's dreamiest school, Stanford, is also the most bike-friendly, according to the League of American Bicyclists.

This year, the league released their first-ever list of universities most friendly to cyclists, determined according to performance in five areas: Engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation and planning.

Of the 32 schools that applied for consideration, 20 earned designations. Only Stanford received the top-level platinum rating. UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara earned gold-level ratings, and the remaining schools received silver or bronze classifications.

According to a press release, Stanford earned top marks thanks to its large number of bike-related programs and resources -- like route maps, safety classes and safety repair stands -- and because a whopping 21.7 percent of Stanford students, faculty and staff commute via bicycle.

Below, see 12 of the most bike-friendly campuses, and check out the full list here.

Did your school make the cut? Let us know in the comments section.

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Comments

[gnarLEIGH]

12:16 PM on 04/18/2011

University of Vermont in Burlington! We just started a bike share program where students "check out" a bike, ride it to class, leave it at another bike rack, and another student is then able to use it.

[landonite]

12:25 AM on 04/13/2011

CSU Long Beach! We should be Number 1, since we're in one of the most bike friendly cities in the country.

[stephj6]

08:13 PM on 04/12/2011

my school (boise state) just barely missed the huffington post cut. lucky number 13. but bsu also wrote a new policy recently that you cant ride your bike thru the central part of campus. not so bike-friendly if you ask me

[HuffingtonFan47]

04:08 PM on 04/11/2011

Bad joke?

[HuffingtonFan47]

04:02 PM on 04/11/2011

All on the East Coast!

[MsMassachusetts]

04:27 PM on 04/12/2011

California moved to the east coast? I must have slept through it. :)

[stephj6]

08:02 PM on 04/12/2011

im not sure why 2 of 12 schools counts as "all on the east coast". especially when those two are minnesota and wisconsin.

[blurredmolly]

06:35 PM on 04/10/2011

Southern Illinois University

[ReveredJedi]

06:34 PM on 04/09/2011

Bike-friendly? University of California-Irvine? HAH! Riverside was friendlier than that! A bike-rental system does not a bike-friendly campus make! At UC Irvine you can only bike within the park in the center of campus which is hilly and has a speed limit for goodness sakes! The main road that rings the campus is off-limit to bikes and any wheeled-apparatuses during main hours. Flawed survey much?

[King Cashaw]

10:44 AM on 04/07/2011

Not a single school East of the Mississippi.

[Marcie Mitchell]

12:29 AM on 04/07/2011

I knew U of O would be on this list. Go Ducks!

[idclaire]

10:35 PM on 04/06/2011

Funny choice for #1, since Stanford warned my son last summer to be extra careful riding his bike on campus because a bike rider just got run over by a car a week earlier.

[King Cashaw]

10:46 AM on 04/07/2011

Just one, try riding your bike on the University of Pittsburgh campus. If only one student is hit, people are stunned.

[stephj6]

08:04 PM on 04/12/2011

i wonder what the percentage of 1 student out of the entire stanford community is.

[jeremybogen]

07:50 AM on 04/06/2011

University of Montana!!!

[schotts]

11:08 PM on 04/05/2011

I'm....proud....to be....a CSU RAM!!!!

[robodawa]

06:12 PM on 04/05/2011

1) Most of these Pix had zero bikes and same volume of people. 2) Those pix that had bikes had few of them. 3) The few bikers pictured had no safety gear. All that Blood, Sweat and Tears to get enrolled at Stanford and these brainiacs won't throw down fifty bucks for a helmet? That makes them look so dumb. And they'll graduate and expect to run the world.

[MASH4077]

06:02 PM on 04/05/2011

I agree with the UC Santa Barbara ranking. When I attended there were 16,000 students and 14,500 registered bikes. Spent a whole month one time without ever using my car. I've seen all the UC's in Calif. Qualities that make a difference are: 1) flat, 2) good, wide, marked lanes, 3) good weather helps, 4) less city traffic in the mix, or well regulated traffic so riding a bike is safe.

Many great colleges just don't have this mix. But they offer other great things to crow about.

[yannb]

04:12 PM on 04/05/2011

Peanuts compared to European campuses.

[Lohikaarme]

07:45 PM on 04/06/2011

That is correct. In the US they have no idea what a bike friendly campus or city is really like.

[bynddrvn5]

03:41 PM on 04/08/2011

Agree. I still remember seeing the bicycle parking area in Uppsala, Sweden. Row after row of bikes, basically a mall sized parking lot of just bikes. Amazing.