SGLC Discusses New Bike Infrastructure

Loyola has been appraised and notarized for its commitment to campus bicycle access and safety. However, some students and faculty believe the university’s bicycle resources should be further bolstered.

The Student Government of Loyola Chicago is gathering student feedback on the adequacy of bicycle resources on campus, and having conversations with administrators about potential new solutions.

Second-year political science and sociology major and SGLC Chair of Sustainability Parker Morgan said she began soliciting student feedback last year. She said most of the feedback was gathered in a survey conducted by the SGLC Transportation Committee once every three years.

Morgan said her efforts as Chair of Sustainability are motivated by the desire to encourage students and faculty to bike more on campus to promote their health.

Loyola was named a Silver Level Bicycle Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists in 2016, according to their website. However, fourth-year environmental policy major Austin George, who has also solicited student feedback as SGLC’s senior senator, said they believe there are bicycle safety issues which still need to be addressed. 

“Loyola has decent cycling infrastructure,” George said. “But it’s not the best, especially when compared to other universities that label themselves as bike friendly campuses.”

Loyola offers bicycle parking and registration, offers student discounts on Divvy bike membership and encourages bicycle use through events such as Bike2Campus Week. However, Loyola lacks the on-campus Divvy bike stations present at the University of Illinois Chicago, which is also silver-rated, according to the UIC website.

George said many first and second-year students have told them they don’t keep their bicycles on campus because the existing bike racks are exposed to inclement weather. 

Morgan said SGLC communicates closely with the Office of Sustainability and Director of Sustainability Aaron Durnbaugh, who’s working to assess the feasibility of new bicycle safety measures on campus.

In light of student concerns about inclement weather, Morgan said SGLC has discussed installing overhangings or awnings on campus buildings to shelter bicycles from the elements, as well as the funding and planning involved with such projects, with Durnbaugh.

Durbaugh said the university has utilized existing building designs to serve as protective overhangs and awnings for bicycles, as is the case with the bike racks outside the Sullivan Center. 

For buildings without such features, Durnbaugh said new structures would need to be built to sufficiently shelter bicycles from the elements. He said he believes too many of these structures would clutter the campus and become a hindrance instead of a benefit.

However, Durnbaugh said he believes such structures would be useful if electric bikes become more abundant on campus, as new structures could serve as sheltered charging stations. George said these stations could be solar powered to be environmentally friendly. 

Durnbaugh said he’s convinced the prevalence of electric bikes will increase, but he’s uncertain of the best time to make implementations to accommodate them.

“It’s one of those chicken or egg situations,” Durnbaugh said. “You could build something that accommodates an e-bike, and then we’ll see more people bringing e-bikes, or do we wait till we see more e-bikes on campus, and then we put it in? It’s a little chicken or egg, but it’s something we’re tracking and are aware of.”

George said another safety issue students have raised with them is bicycle theft. They said theft is a trend across the city of Chicago as bicycle infrastructure motivates people to keep bicycles in the city. 

George said some bicycle thefts can be explained by owners neglecting to properly lock the bike. However, even properly locked bikes can be stolen when thieves unscrew the bolts from the poles of empty bike racks and then wait for people to lock their bikes to the pole, after which the pole can be easily lifted and the bicycle removed. 

Durnbaugh said there’s an indoor bicycle storage facility, a “bicycle corral,” which the university installed in response to theft, inside the Lake Shore Campus Main Parking Structure. The corral has 320 free storage spaces for people who register their bicycles with Campus Safety. George said the bike corral helps ameliorate both theft and damage from the elements. 

Durnbaugh said sheltering all campus bike racks isn’t realistic while also attending to students’ and faculty’s desire to park their bikes as close to their final destinations as possible. 

As a compromise between these concerns, Durnbaugh said the administration is considering sheltering the bike racks outside Cudahy Library, since they’re centralized between the Information Commons, the Crown Center, Dumbach and Cudahy Hall. 

Durnbaugh said this idea, while it would be a step in the right direction, still doesn’t fully address the concern regarding the proximity of bike racks to campus buildings. 

George said they hope to help inform the best solutions for bicycle safety and accessibility concerns through the continued soliciting and discussion of student concerns and opinions.

“In the beginning, I was thinking of specific strategies, and I looked at a lot of different things that other universities have employed,” George said. “But I came to realize that my goal with this is mostly to encourage and incentivize the university to explore solutions that it feels are best to addressing the needs, because I still feel that there’s more research that needs to be done on what would best suit the Loyola community and campus.”