Evaluating Bicycling Commuters' Experiences at Texas A&M University and Adjacent Areas in the City of College Station, Texas

Tbe university-oriented community of College Station, Texas offers a great opportunity for bicycle commuting. Both the City of College Station and Texas A&M University (TAMU) have taken steps to add facilities for pedestrians and bicycles in and around campus areas. The goal of this project was to assess existing conditions to determine the potential to further increase bicycle use in the community. We focused our research on the TAMU campus and adjacent areas, as the university is the largest trip generator in this community. Two surveys of bicycle commuters were conducted in which bicycle commuters reported inadequate pathsways (including poor pavement conditions as well as too few pathways), aggressive motorists, and difficult intersections/traffic signals as their major obstacles to bicycling to campus. Fifty-five percent of survey respondents would like to have more and/or better bicycle pathways. Comments indicated that separate, dedicated pathways would be preferred by bicyclists, and 69 percent of survey respondents said they would bicycle more if a safe and direct route was available. The research team conducted a survey of non-bicycle commuters in which 42 percent of respondents, for reasons not related to the bicycling environment, said they could not be encouraged to bike. Fourteen percent said that improving pathways might encourage them to bicycle commute, and 5 percent stated that safety concerns are their primary reason for not bicycling to campus. The researchers also conducted a manual count of commuter bicyclists and found that of the approximately 45,000 students enrolled at TAMU, 1,906 enter campus by bicycle on a typical class day. Available data confirmed that approximately 22,000 students enter campus daily through modes other than bicycle. Based on the information gathered in this research project, the researchers estimate that approximately 500 additional students may bike to campus daily if safe and direct routes to campus were available to them.