Gamecocks Are Bicycle Friendly

As a statewide organization, we generally try not to play favorites with any organization, but I’m going to have to break that rule when it comes to my alma mater, the University of South Carolina. This week, the League of American Bicyclists announced nine new Bicycle Friendly Universities, and USC was among them with a bronze-level designation!

With this award, the Gamecocks are the first BFU in both South Carolina and the SEC. In its two years, the BFU program has welcomed 35 schools in 21 states into its ranks. New honorees are announced twice a year, and interested universities can learn more about the application process here.

Hopefully the university takes pride in this accomplishment and pushes ahead to attain higher designation levels as the BFU program grows more popular. Knowing that USC encourages its students to bike and walk and cares about their safety should be an attractive and comforting trait for parents of prospective college students as they research schools, and the students should look forward to the opportunity to stop relying on a car to get around and to get a bike for cheap.

We look forward to watching USC become even more bicycle friendly in the future. With Furman, Charleston and a certain orange-and-purple school in the Upstate looking to improve bicycling for their own students, now is not the time to stop moving forward.