What does it take to motivate undergraduate students to commit to bike safety?
Students in 42 undergraduate residences participated in the second annual Bike Safety Dorm Challenge, sponsored by Parking & Transportation Services (P&TS) between Sept. 20 and Dec. 16. The challenge promotes bike safety by encouraging undergraduates to pledge to follow the rules of the road and to wear a bike helmet for every ride, even short trips.
Three dorms—Jerry, Muwekma-Tah-Ruk and ZAP—posted 100 percent participation and tied for first. Muwekma-Tah-Ruk, the Native American theme dorm, won a drawing that broke the tie and took away the grand prize: a free charter bus to Lake Tahoe.
Jerry and ZAP did not leave empty-handed: Each dorm received a $500 credit toward a future charter bus to Tahoe.
Jasmine Lee, ’13, community manager for Muwekma-Tah-Ruk, said her dorm decided to participate as a simple and easy way to make residents aware of how to bike safely.
“We are the only Row house with freshmen, and many of them were not exposed to biking culture like we have here at Stanford,” Lee said. “A majority of our residents did not have or wear helmets before the challenge, so our peer health educator kindly located helmets on campus that our residents could purchase for $10. It took some convincing, but now we are thrilled to be winners who are Tahoe-bound!”
Brodie Hamilton, director of P&TS, said he was excited to see the momentum building for bike safety among Stanford undergraduates and the enthusiasm of participants. He noted that participation by 926 students and 42 of Stanford’s 78 undergraduate dorms this year is up from 666 students and 40 dorms the previous year, when the challenge first launched.
“Some dorms even created their own bike safety mottoes this year, such as Larkin House’s ‘I love my Larkin lobes’ campaign, which encouraged all students to love their brains by wearing bike helmets, stopping at stop signs and using bike lights and reflectors when riding at night,” Hamilton said. “While there was one winner of a free charter bus to Tahoe, everyone who participated is a winner in our eyes. Bike safety is a way to save lives and lobes—and what brighter ‘lobes’ to save than those at Stanford?”
