COLLEGE STATION — Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers will begin a study of bicycle use on the Texas A&M campus next week. The study, sponsored by 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, and they made 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.
In the first phase of this two-part project, research staff will conduct bicycle-commuter surveys at campus bicycle racks on November 16 and 17. The second phase of the project will start in the spring semester when researchers count bicycles and vehicles entering and exiting campus.