College Station, Texas — Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers will begin the second part of a bicycle use study on the Texas A&M campus next week. The study, sponsored by the Southwest University Transportation Center, is expected to help local officials improve bike routes, enhance safety and encourage more bike use locally.
The study will update a similar effort conducted in 1975 and led by the League of Women Voters. When that study was completed, Texas A&M had fewer than 25,000 students making approximately 10,000 bike trips per day. With the local population more than doubling since that time, and with substantial changes in the local roadway network and campus bus service, researchers anticipate finding that bicycle use has changed significantly over the past 30 years. Identifying those changes can aid efforts to improve bicycle facilities in the Bryan/College Station community, researchers say. “The data will help transportation planners prioritize bicycle improvements according to areas of highest use,” said Robin Rabinowitz, assistant transportation researcher, Texas Transportation Institute.
In the first phase of this two-part project, research staff conducted bicycle-commuter surveys at campus bicycle racks in November 2004. In the upcoming phase of the project, researchers will count bicycles entering and exiting campus.