Grand Valley named a bicycle friendly university

Grand Valley State University has been named a Bicycle Friendly University by The League of American Bicyclists, a national organization that encourages the use of bicycles for health and well-being.

The university received a silver award and joined 164 colleges and universities across the country that are designated as Bicycle Friendly Universities (BFU), including fellow silver awardees Michigan State University and University of Michigan. Grand Valley was judged on several factors including education, encouragement, engineering, enforcement, and evaluation and planning.

"This designation not only shows that Grand Valley supports bicycling as a recreation and transportation option, but it demonstrates the university's ongoing commitment to sustainability and a healthy campus community," said Joe Bitely, assistant director of Campus Recreation, who submitted the BFU application.

Grand Valley provides a variety of bicycle-related services and support on the Allendale Campus, including a bike rental program, bike maintenance shop located in Laker Village, bike tune-ups at the Farmers Market, bike repair station and 4,173 bike parking spaces across campus.

Becoming a Bicycle Friendly University was one goal Grand Valley committed to in May 2016 as a participant of the Partnership for a Healthier America, Healthy Campus Initiative.

For more information, visit bikeleague.org/university.