Bike trend by Catie Hall

Number of bicyclists around Durham increasing

By Catie Hall

Lead 1: Driving a car is the go-to American way. Most people consider grabbing the keys before checking a bus schedule or grabbing a bicycle. But according to some recent statistics, that’s not true around Durham. Bicyclists are on the rise.

Lead 2: Driving a car is the go-to American way. Most people consider grabbing the keys before checking a bus schedule or grabbing a bicycle. But around Durham, NH, bicyclists are on the rise.

Lead 3: On a day where drizzle coats the asphalt or when the sun shines at its highest peaks, tires rub against asphalt with every jab of the peddler’s knee.

Driving a car is the go-to American way. Most people consider grabbing the keys before checking a bus schedule or grabbing a bicycle. But according to some recent statistics, that’s not true around Durham. Bicyclists are on the rise.

On a day where drizzle coats the asphalt or when the sun shines at its highest peaks, tires rub against asphalt with every jab of a pedaling knee. And UNH engineering professor, Kent Chamberlin, pedals for health and happiness.

“I live in kind of the Goldilocks distance [from campus]; it’s just right, the distance,” Chamberlin said, smiling in his office. “So it’s about five miles, but I take the back road, which is about six and a half miles. … I smile pretty much the whole way in. And then I get here, and I’m refreshed, my blood is pumping, I’m wide awake. It’s not like those commutes where you were driving in a car and it’s frustrating — not at all. It’s just delightful. And I just feel so lucky everyday, even days when the weather’s not good.”

Defying two-footed travel has prevailed since 1817 when Baron Von Drais invented a walking machine that he would straddle in order to get around royal gardens faster. After this wooden walking machine with two wheels, the Pedaling History Bicycle Museum webpage says the next appearance of “a two-wheeled riding machine was in 1865.”

To converted bicycle-users, there is more than one reason to forgo the standard use of just two legs, even if it doesn’t involve royal gardens.

“I ride my bike because it’s faster than walking,” said UNH junior Casey Wolfe, who rides her bike mostly on campus but does make exceptions. “Durham’s actually a beautiful place to ride a bike just because of the roads and how beautiful the town is.”

“Freshman year, before my bike was stolen, I biked all over the place,” said Christopher Carroll, UNH junior. “I hardly ever walked.”

While some people use their two-wheeled mechanisms to get around for fast convenience, others have more complicated relationships with their sport.

“The reasons I bike around definitely includes passion for cycling, exercise, and an excuse to get outside and see scenery,” said UNH senior William Daher.

Because of the diverse population of cyclists like Wolfe, Carroll and Daher, towns and committees all over the U.S. are being forced to think about ways to accommodate for the changing culture around bicycles.

Even Durham’s committees are rewriting some rules.

Town Councilor Robin Mower said in an email that Durham’s Energy and Parks and Recreation Committees are looking for ways to make the town more bicycle friendly because people have been asking for improvements.

According to a survey from the Durham Newsletter conducted on Sept. 23, 2011, “Respondents overall supported policies to make the downtown more pedestrian friendly, including improving bike lanes, sidewalks, and crosswalks.”

In 2001, 2 percent of staff and students were walking or biking to UNH on a weekly basis. For faculty, there was a 2 percent increase in bicycle riders between 2001 and 2007 and another 2 percent increase between 2007 and 2011.

In contrast, the number of off-campus UNH students who biked to campus went from 2 percent in 2001 to 15 percent in 2007. In 2011, that number increased by 2 percent.

According to Mower, Durham residents also reported an increasing number of cyclists around Durham. While residents could not be reached for comment, members of the UNH community were able to give feedback on Durham’s plan to accommodate for the increasing number.

“I think [a new bike plan] is definitely needed,” Wolfe said, “because the two times that I’ve [ridden my bike off campus] around Durham … especially when I was on the side of a turn, I was so afraid of a car whipping around the corner and hitting me. So if there was more of a shoulder, even, that’d be so much safer.”

“I think Durham and UNH have really come along way in terms of bike accessibility,” said Sara Cleaves, associate director at UNH’s Sustainability Institute. “And also making the campus as walk-able as possible. We have more lanes for bikers and we have a lot more places where people can park their bikes, but I think we can do a lot more to improve that.”

Some of the projects that UNH and Durham have worked on to make the community more bicycle-friendly was to add bike lanes to existing roads, said Campus Planner Stephen Pesci. Pesci also said that some roads around Durham have sharrows, or markings to indicate that it is a shared road between cars and cyclists.

“The university and the town have been working for over the past ten years to improve the walkability, bike-ability of the downtown,” Pesci said. “Specifically the downtown and on campus. On the bike side, we’ve been building in more bike infrastructure and [UNH and Durham] do that together.”

UNH and Durham have also worked to offer more bicycle parking.

The Transportation Policy Committee conducted a data check in spring 2012 to count bike rack capacity at UNH. The report said “The Campus has seen significant increases in bike use and storage over the past ten years. We also see increases in bike travel on town and campus roads.”

In 2009, Pesci said that there were 174 outdoor bike racks with the capacity to hold 1,650 bicycles. In 2011, the campus had a total of 217 outdoor bike racks with a total capacity of 2,290 to meet the growing demand.

In the 2011 Transportation Survey, 44 percent of faculty and 49 percent of students thought bicycle accommodations and conditions at UNH was good while 9 percent of faculty and 22 percent of students thought it was excellent. On the flip side, 22 percent and 24 percent, respectively, only thought it was fair.

However, Colleen Flaherty, administrative assistant at UNH’s Sustainability Institute, said she’s an optimist.

“It’s great to hear that Durham is trying to promote alternative transportation,” Flaherty said. Whether it’s biking or walking, that’s really great to hear. … They should be promoting alternate transportation. It should be fun to walk around Durham, bike around Durham.”

Whatever the opinion, bicycling culture in the United States has long been big business.

The United States Consensus Bureau calculated the number of bicycles over 20 years. From 1990 to 2000, sales of bicycles and bicycle accessories increased by 111 percent.

In 2000, the Department of Transportation published “Bicycle and Pedestrian Data,” which recognized increasing bicycle trends.

“The importance of pedestrian and bicycle travel has received increasing attention in recent years as planners and policy makers recognize the benefits to communities, public health, economic development, and the environment of improving nonmotorized travel options,” the report said.

The report also said that Congress passed a law in 1998 that required transportation planning and increased funding to incorporate bicycle and pedestrian needs for projects.

Since 2000, people all over the US, even in small towns in New Hampshire, have started to share in the bike trend.

“Personally, so I live in Dover, and I would love it if Dover would do something like that,” Flaherty said, talking about Durham’s plan to make the town more bike-accessible. “There are some roads that are great to bike on, then there are others that aren’t so great, so I think towns moving towards more options for people is a beautiful thing.”

Others, however, have been climbing the bike trend for several years.

“Exercise doesn't generally sound like a good time to me (putting my body through pain spending hours of time at the gym),” said UNH senior Ryan Cornelissen through email. “So biking is a practical compromise.  I started two summers ago, biking as means of alternate transportation. … I now am commuting to UNH for my last semester and park in the West Edge lot daily to ride my bike onto campus.  A Lot always seems crazy and unsafe even for cars, so I enjoy getting my heart rate up and catching a breeze to start the day instead.”

Mike Farrell has been an employee at the Durham Bike Shop since 1977, where bikes can be serviced or purchased.

“There are more bicycles being used today than there were a few years ago,” Farrell said, while he wiped bike grease off his hands.

“If you were to ask me 10, 15 years ago, I’d say, ‘Eh, bikes are not that big in Durham,’” Pesci said. “UNH has never had a strong bicycling culture or community, which is ironic because we’ve had a great cycling team for decades. We don’t have a good bicycling culture. Now, while I think it’s grown to the point where it’s functional, it’s not like some college campuses.”

Buchikas Ski and Bike shop in Salem, NH, sells mountain, road, hybrid, BMX, and kids bikes along with skis, snowboards, clothing, accessories, parts/services, and lift tickets, according to their website. Though Buchika’s has snowboards and skies lined against the walls and an assortment of accessories, people keep going back for the bikes.

Out of 23 reviews on Buchika’s Yelp page, 18 of them were specifically about Buchika’s bike service and sales. Out of those 18 reviews, 16 of them had ratings of four or five stars, five being the highest.

Chamberlin has ridden his bike to UNH for 30 years. Of 30 years, could he choose just one moment that he enjoyed most?

“At one point in riding my bike, I would’ve named a particularly beautiful, sunny, warm, perfect-temperature day,” Chamberlin said. “But the more I ride, the more I find I can adjust my clothing and my attitude to enjoy darn near any weather. So most days, I just can’t believe I am able to ride to work. It’s fun to say that after so many years.”

Though the UNH cycling team could not be reached for comment, Chamberlin said he doesn’t think you have to be an athlete to ride a bicycle.

“I want to set a good example,” Chamberlin said. “I mean universities are places where you expect the future to happen early. And so, let’s bring it on. This is the future.”