Not only students, but postdocs, adjuncts, staff, and contract workers. Blue Collar Mountain Biking is on the right track, but doesn't (yet) have the user numbers that we idealists dream of.

Year 'round I ride in Adidas Sambas. I keep a pair of dress shoes in my desk with a couple of pair of socks.

Good to hear that you have free registration. That seems like a program that needs to be advocated for (as opposed to bike racks, which schools build when they're tired of cutting bikes off of lampposts), is there a strong cycling advocacy group at BU? Or does it blend into the city culture?

Starting Monday my commute will be 18 miles round trip. I'll be carrying my laptop in a messenger bag; books, food, and a change of clothes in panniers. My university has gym lockers to rent for $15 a semester and that will keep a stock of toiletries, shoes and undergarments (should I be excessively groggy in the a.m.). My only concern this winter will be the weather wear on the bike. For the last six months I have commuted to work and have only concerned myself with tire pressure and a clean lubed chain. My maintenance schedule may have to be altered. Any suggestions?

I am ready to begin my commute this fall! I'll be riding about 4 miles to the bus, then another 4 to campus, both ways. Have been driving, it's about 35 miles each way, so I'll be saving quite a bit of money, and staying in shape during a busy semester in the process! I've made the trip a few times just to be sure the bike/bus combo will work, and so far so good. I live in a great biking town, and the public transportation is doing well keeping up. Easy to use bike racks on the front of the buses.

As far as theft goes, I'm not sure what to expect. I haven't lived on campus at this school, and this is my first semester with a bike, so I plan on being overly careful. I'll be using a kryptonite u-lock, possibly with a cable combo, and taking either the seat or the wheel in with me. There is a locked room where I can keep my gear, so I won't have to carry it around with me. Thought about bringing the bike in with me, but I'd have to go up a few too many stairs for comfort.

I'm trying to figure out how to get my books off my back though! It'll be hot well into the semester, and I'm tired of the sweaty back. I'm looking at getting a rack with some sort of pannier to carry books. I'd like something that can convert to a backpack or messenger bag easily, but can't really afford something like Arkel's Commuter or Bug. Any suggestions?

I recently graduated, but I commuted by bike probably 90% of the time to grad school while I was doing my MS degree. Since I was doing research in a lab, I had some office space so it was pretty much like commuting to a 9-5 job. I was lucky, 4 miles each way and there was a free bus run by the school a mile walk from my apartment. I could also drive and buy a temporary parking permit for $4 a day, and I had some classmates that lived in my neighborhood to carpool with. Lots of good alternatives if I couldn't ride.

I rode year-round, through the Rochester snow and salt, it was a lot of fun. I just used a backpack to carry stuff (couldn't afford rack/panniers at that point) and I stuck my bike in an unused lab. Again, since I was only doing research this was basically like commuting to a job. I pretty much just had to bring in a lunch each day, most of my books/papers/lab notes stayed in my office at school. Parking is expensive, limited, and remote, and I didn't want to put extra wear on my aging car so cycling was definitely the best option. 10 minute drive + 10 minute walk from the parking lot vs. 15-20 minute bike ride is really a no-brainer. Saved money, saved gas, saved wear and tear on my car and the environment, and lost 15 pounds.

Starting my 2nd year in grad school next week and I started riding again this summer. I am just going to sweat. Shower would be nice, but the facilities are across campus.

Hopefully Dallas will cool down in the next six months or so. About nine miles round trip and it doesn't take much longer than driving.

The new bike lanes IMO are a good first(albeit weak) step to make the campus bike-friendly. For one, it's narrow, and either right up against the curb or parked cars smack in door-zone central. Second, as an unintended consequence, cars do feel like they can drive faster now that there's a dedicated bike lane, which is especially bad because Comm ave is narrow to begin with. With narrow bike lanes sandwiched between parked cars and moving traffic, bikers are definately going to have to stray from the bike lane like you did to avoid hazards, which could be even more dangerous now.

Perhaps the only good I've found from the bike lanes is in the two hell intersections that join West Campus and East Campus. The first is this one:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ndom/comm1.jpg

Now there's a bike lane that starts just after that green light exactly where the yellow google line is. This is great because if I'm on a bike at this intersecion and need to go straight a lot of cars at this intersection on my left such as that minivan may have to turn right at the next big intersection and many cars and bikers find themselves in a dangerous situation when bikers are going straight and cars need to cross over to make the next right turn. With the bike lane cars should now know bikers have the right of way to head straight first before they switch to the right-turning lane.

Sadly, the same situation exists at that next intersection but coming from the other direction. Except now One out of the Four sides that cars enter the intersection from is a stop sign while all the others are lights, which leads to traffic jams every day during rush hour without fail. The new bike lanes helps here the same way as in the last intersection.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ndom/comm2.jpg
here's the next intersection from the POV of the side with a stop sign(when this photo was taken the stop sign wasn't even there due to construction.)

It's summer now and the campus is eerily empty and I still feel unsafe riding in the bike lane. I can only imagine what it'll be like in two weeks when the school year starts. Even with all my complaints, the bike lanes, which were part of a BU campus "beautification" project that also included plating hundreds of new trees on along Comm ave sidewalks, are a good step in the right direction. Sadly, the congestion due to construction did cause a bunch of collistions last year. I guess we'll see if the project helped at all this year. IMO, BU should spend less money "appearing" to be bike friendly and offer things like better placed updated bike racks with covers or "defensive biking in the city" seminars, etc.

As for me, I'll use the bike lane when I need to but won't hesitate to hog a car lane if in the "door-zone." And as a side note, I use the esplanade, a wonderful carless walk/bike path along the charles river to commute to work.

I will be commuting from Sacramento to UC Davis starting in September. It is about 16 miles each way, mostly a bike lane or a bike path, with just a small portion on a rural road without sidewalks or bike lanes.

I rode it once on my one-speed cruiser, but haven't tried it yet on my new Marin Belvedere. My boyfriend has been riding his bike to summer school regularly, and we're going to be riding to school together this fall. The Amtrak is only $4 a ride if you buy a 10-ride ticket, so that is going to be our backup in case it is rainy or whatever.

I'm currently shopping for pannier bags or some other system to hold my stuff. I get extremely sweaty so my plan is to bring clothes to change into and take a shower in the locker room once I arrive at school. I hope that will work!

Aah, I remember Commonwealth Ave. Part of me misses Boston, but I don't miss living in a less congested city. I definitely feel more comfortable riding here than I would have in C/B, had I had a bike there.

I bike to school. It's about 11-12 miles from where I live down a two-lane highway with a nice broad shoulder. It's only slightly hilly and over all uphill on the way there. I try to go three days a week, of the five that I have classes. I could take my car, but riding is a bit more fun. I haven't been able to recently as my wife took it up and now I have to find equipment so that we both can. I'm looking forward to being able to start again after labor day.

There isn't a theft problem that I've seen. I haven't had anything of mine stolen.

The best part of riding to school is the weather. It's pretty good. That and I feel more focused after a decent ride.

Some bike infrastructure would be great, but that ain't it. The lane is, as you've noted, only for a few blocks; it's full of sewer grates; there are long stretches of no-parking zones beside it where people park with impunity, and others where they just double-park right in the lane. It was a stupid, stupid idea.

I used to have a 25 minute walk to school, I look forward to during that into a sub-10 minute bike ride:)

I also commute to grad school in Ann Arbor daily about 12 miles round trip. Last year was my first year living up here after moving from Florida and I was able to ride all winter with no real problems, granted I felt safer riding a bike in the snow than I did driving my car in it.

I really like how well riding to class lets me wake up and I can stay much more focused in classes.

Couldn't agree more. I completely ignore the lane going over the Pike in either direction because it is dangerously in the wrong place (especially westbound, which is essentially lines guiding you to your likely death). Gotta love the new pavement though.

BU actually has a few heated, locked bike rooms on campus, which is nice ... but I think they are only available to staff/grad students. Now if they would only fix the shower in my building ...

I go to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A lot of kids started riding this year, and it's a love/hate situation for me. I'm really glad that a lot more people are doing it, but at the same time, I'm not. There is hardly any room to park. Most of the racks are filled up with department store/garage-fodder mountain bikes. Lincoln is a pretty bike-friendly city, but sometimes I almost die going down the sidewalks I have to go down due to the one-way, the opposite way, streets. I always have to bail in the grass and my little 700c's don't really like all the hidden bumps.

Also, I don't think all these new freshmen have heard an "on your left" or a bicycle bell before.

Other than that, I have a really easy commute. I have to be at two different campuses, but I live almost directly between them. I think downtown campus, at least to the teacher buildings, is just over a mile (12 city blocks). East Campus, to my east, is roughly a mile and a half to two miles.

Easy.

Max

PhD Candidate riding 5.4 miles each way to campus. Started this summer when gas prices skyrocketed and to get some much needed exercise. AFAIK, theft is a minor problem on campus, mostly because it is Long Island and there's not much in the way of bicycle-friendly infrastructure around. Most people on bikes are kids pedaling toys and low income people pedaling adult sized toys. There are some decent bike racks around campus, and some really crappy ones, the U is working to replace some of the worst. What I do anticipate is that come Tuesday (or whenever the first day of classes is) I'll have to get more assertive about filtering at the couple traffic lights approaching campus.
When not commuting by bike, I generally drive and park in a rather distant lot (free) and walk to my building. Generally I enjoy the walk, but it takes about the same amount of time to drive, park and walk as it does to ride. I'm not sure what the winter will hold for me... generally winter doesn't really kick in on Long Island until mid December, so other than some upgraded lights, I am not sure what I'll need for safe riding this fall.
I've found that since I'm in lab most of the day, and a computer is provided, I don't have to carry all that much. Nonetheless, I prefer the pannier route to the messenger bag route for the conveyance of my essentials. Typically I carry all the requisites, plus a shirt. Deodorant and some shoes stay at my desk.
I'm hoping to get some wrench time with the Campus Bicycle Cooperative this fall, but that will depend on how my thesis research and writing progresses.

I want to give Boston/Cambridge a shot later this fall or spring, albeit commuting to school and not college. I'll probably just have books and stuff, nothing else.

I'm commuting to and around campus by bike this year. 5.2 miles in and another 3 or 4 miles around and 5.2 home. Commuting on Purdue campus is a bit of an adventure. :twitchy: I'm not sure which are worse, the oblivious drivers or the oblivious pedestrians. Tomorrow, I have a 10 minute break to make it across campus from one class to another and I have to fly to do it. I'm getting pretty good at dodging meat pylons and cars with Fraternity plates. ;)

I feel like I've replied to this before, perhaps a similar thread.

Undergrad, 3rd year at Brock University. 8km each way, I take a scenic route typically. Roads are good except the winter. Some bike lanes, some one ways, no roads with above a 60km/h speed limit. A decent climb up the Niagara Escarpment just before campus wakes me up in the morning.

Don't see too many other commuters, just fair-weathers and those who live very close. I commute through the winter, but am lucky that I'll be heading to New Zealand the 3rd of January and avoid most of the Canadian snow.

Ride a fixed gear conversion 90% of the time. Occasionally I'll take my roadbike, Specialized Allez, if the weather is nice and I want to go really fast. And I may ride my Surly Long Haul Trucker a few times this year since it was just completed.

This is my <10 minute dash I have to make,through the throng:

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...usCrossing.jpg

It's interesting, to say the least!

im currently commuting to class, i live off campus in Albany, NY.

2.5 miles each way i think according to my GFs bike computer. takes like 15 minutes.

i ride a mountain bike and most of my commute i stick to the sidewalk. bikes seem to be half and half on the sidewalk and the street for the router i take (along a main road, some of it has a decently wide right lane to have a bike on it, some of it doesnt). not a great city for bikes.

i go back after each class unless i have another in a row, so on monday/wednesday i ride 15 miles total and tuesday/thursday i ride 5 miles total, and friday 10 miles. (over the summer i was riding quite a bit for leisure after work, now that school has started i think the leisure riding is going to be only on weekends)

the winter will be the real test, im going to end up buying a balaclava i think, i will see if i can pull it off. (we have bitterly cold blowing wind all winter here)

also i just started this week, i was planning to drive whenever it rains, but parking is such a pain in the ass im thinking of looking into some rain gear

I feel your pain. Pedestrians are worse for me because A.) they're slow, B.) there are lots of them, and C.) they're sometimes unpredictable. It would be nice if more people understood that the safest way to walk when you see a bicycle approaching is to continue walking in a straight line in the direction you were heading. We have a plan to avoid hitting you, but it goes all out of whack when you try to change direction on us.

There's BU Cycling, but to my knowledge they don't really "advocate" anything other than the sport for those who join (racing). I get the feeling that bike advocacy comes with biking enough to know what needs to be advocated. Most students just don't bike enough to care or know what to care about. Most people I know who ride don't know how to ride safely in the streets or properly lock their bikes. Some, like me, do eventually learn, though many don't. I'd say hardly any students I know who bike care about bike safety/advocacy and care more about using their bikes to get around or how pretty their SS/Fixed looks.

I did notice that this year on the "moving in" webpage there's a link to the BUPD bike registration page. That's a good step, but it tends to be more the Police advocating it because i'd imagine they get stolen bike reports every single day; it was a BUPD officer that I remember from freshman orientation that warned us of the BIC pen lock hack and that the Fugghedaboutit lock was the only lock that thieves really couldn't get through without power tools. So, despite the poorly placed bike racks and lack of indoor bike shelter, I applaud BUPD for their bike advocacy efforts. At least there's something.

I'm seriously considering handing out printouts around campus with pointers on locking up a bike properly and biking safely on the streets-gorilla bike advocacy heh. It's sad to see bikes with stolen parts locked up outside dorms and people almost getting hit by cars/train/people every day..Maybe something like this (pulled from this year's excellent NYC bike map)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...bikesafety.jpg

I rode this for 3 years to college 6 miles round trip. Started in 2005 before fixed was cool. :-)
http://fixedgeargallery.com/2006/july/ZakTrafton-1.jpg
http://fixedgeargallery.com/2006/july/ZakTrafton-5.jpg

Alumni here...however, I used to have about a 4 mile commute into school. I have come to find that I really miss commuting and riding for transportation. My commute was a pretty relaxed ride through lightly traveled residential areas. Driving was the alternative mode for me, which was usually reserved for when I had large things to carry to class. I would have to park so far away since I didnt have a campus parking pass that it was much more time efficient to bike. Just lock up right out front of whatever building and stroll on in. Theft wasn't a huge problem at my school. I always used a u lock thru a wheel and the frame and never had a problem.

college was AWESOME. I loved it. it is what got me into cycling, what else can I say? my original motivation to ride to school was the cost of getting a parking permit.

I was able to get up at a relatively later hour than the one I get up at now which meant I had a lot more energy. I could wear what I wanted. didn't have to care how I looked. after class and a couple hours of studying I usually was able to get some extra riding in.

I miss college. could be part of why I'm going back :)

I have been missing college too. I lived in the dorms for awhile and missed biking to school. I then moved off campus and had a 2 mi R/T. I even biked when the snow wans't to deep.

Mechanical engineering undergraduate senior here. I've been riding since the beginning of summer class. I usually cover about 6 miles round trip, depending on the route I take and the errands I run. I have a vehicle, I just choose to not deal with parking, fuel use, or the ticket writing nazis. It's actually been really beneficial for me--there's a grocery store just off from campus, the weather is generally pretty cooperative, and most of the students who live off campus live close enough to walk, so motorists (except for a few of those who have Greek-lettered license plates) are mindful of pedestrians and cyclists. It's really a nice place to ride a bike.

Hell--I've even lost a little weight doing this cycling thing.:)

Tomorrow is my first day biking to school even though school started Monday of this week. It's 4 miles each way. I hope to be biking to school at least a few days each week.

I am a multi-mode commuter at UARK, I ride to the bus stop and put the bike on the rack to go up the hill, then on the way down the hill I pedal my ass off outrunning cars until I turn off of a narrow 1 lane arterial road.

The drivers down here a much more ****ing dangerous than they are in NYC. In NYC there is enough congestion for the real speed limit to be slow and you know the intentions of the driver. Down here they are just unpredictable and do not know how to handle driving around bikes.

jd student. 7 miles each way. i lock my bike on the bottom floor next to a stairwell. the security office is right next door to there so i guess that comforts me a little.

i cant drive because of HOV rules, and metroing is around $70 a month. 6 miles of the trip is on the MUP so its a nice peaceful ride.