Eugene might be called Track City because of its history with running events at the University of Oregon, but what caught my eye on a recent visit were the thousands of bicycles.
I've been on a whirlwind tour of some Northwest colleges lately with my high school senior son, and my unofficial observations found the University of Oregon to be the most bike-centric of any campus.
It stands to reason: Eugene has been judged a silver level bicycle-friendly community by the League of American Bicyclists.
There are bicycle lanes marked all around town, bike bridges crossing the river, and bicycle routes throughout the surrounding area are marked clearly with directional signs. In fact, the website touts 89 miles of bike lanes, 30 miles of bike paths and five bike bridges.
The town in the Willamette Valley is generally flat, so singlespeed and track bikes take their place alongside old beaters and cruisers in the bike parking areas.
Because the weather in Eugene is damp much of the year, the university has built many covered shelters for the commuters. I'm told the covered spaces are usually the first to fill up.
Since the mid 1990s, the university has spent $400,000 on bike cages, lockers and covered and uncovered spaces as well as other bicycle amenities. There are 4,600 bicycle parking spaces on campus.
The university student population is about 20,000, and tour guides say that only freshmen live on campus. That means a lot of students and staff need to get to the university during the day, and most do it by bus or bicycle.
According to the League, bicycle traffic in Eugene accounts for 5.5% of trips, one of the highest rates in the US and about five times the national average.
You can find a Eugene bike map here, or one for neighboring Springfield here.
UO might not be my son's choice for college, but it would be my first choice for bicycling.
While some parents might want to stroll through college library or bookstore, I walked among the bicycles at the University of Oregon and spotted this one with “this bike is a pipe bomb” sticker.
The sticker is for a punk rock band from Pensacola, Florida, that goes by that name. It has gotten the attention of over-zealous police, however, in the past.
In January, police cleared an airline terminal in Memphis when the sticker was spotted on a bike. And a few years ago at Ohio University in Athens a bike carrying the sticker was demolished by a bomb team. The owner was eventually reimbursed.
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