WVU offers bike-to-work incentives

Original Article from Dominion Post May 19, 2011

WVU offers bike-to-work incentives

Cycling classes among offerings

BY ALEX LANG

The Dominion Post

It doesn’t matter if it’s raining or shining, if roads are snowy or clear, WVU employee Traci Liebig is biking to work.

“I just enjoy it,” said Liebig, who is the executive assistant to the provost.

Most days, Liebig can be seen riding her blue Cannondale bike on the five-mile round trip to and from her office in Stewart Hall. She is one of a handful of WVU employees who bike to work. This week is Bike to Work Week and culminates with Bike to Work Day on Friday.

When she first started riding, Liebig said figuring out the logistics — such as how to ride but still wear appropriate work clothes — was difficult. But, after a while she got the hang of it. On a rainy day this week, she wore athletic apparel over her work clothes.

Liebig said riding her bike takes the same amount of time as driving to get to campus, but, she doesn’t have to pay for parking and gas. She added she does own a car.

In the winter she has a mountain bike she rides to help navigate weather conditions.

Motorists have gotten better at sharing the road since she started riding, Liebig said. Now it’s rare that a car drives too close.

“I try to follow all the bike laws,” Liebig said. “I try to be as predictable as possible.”

Liebig parks her bike on the downtown campus, but that is not the only place riders can travel to.

Mountaineer Station, on Van Voorhis Road, features various facilities for bikers. It also provides an access point where a cyclist can park and get anywhere on campus. WVU Director of Parking and Transportation Hugh Kierig said that WVU Mountaineer Station was built to support alternative modes of transportation.

The facility offers lockers, bike racks and showers for the riders. Kierig said riders can pedal to the station and then take the PRT to one of WVU’s campuses.

WVU will pay for students or employees to take the city’s Confident Cycling Program, Kierig said. The class provides information on defensive bicycling tactics.

Parking and Transportation also offers the Occasional Parker Program. This program rewards people who give up their on-campus parking privileges to use alternative modes of transportation such as biking, car pooling or riding the bus.

Those in the program get 18 one-day parking passes for campus, Kierig said. For example, the passes can be used by individuals who car pool, but have to drive to work every so often because of a doctor’s appointment.

About 10 people are now enrolled in the program, Kierig said. He hopes that number will increase.

The university has a representative on Morgantown’s Bicycle Board and Pedestrian Safety Board, Kierig said. The groups are working to make sure bicycling and walking aren’t just recreational activities in Morgantown, but modes of transportation.

Someone doesn’t have to be in Jack LaLanne-type shape to bike to work, Liebig said. If she needs to, she will walk the bike up and down a hill.

She encouraged WVU employees to give biking to work a shot.

“Just try it,” Liebig said. “You don’t have to be a pro biker. You don’t have to have a bunch of gear.” Bob Gay/The Dominion Post photos

Traci Liebig (above) maneuvers her bike through University Avenue traffic as she heads home from her job at Stewart Hall on the WVU downtown campus. Liebig (right) retrieves her bike from the bike rack in front of E. Moore Hall before heading home to Sabraton after a day at the office.