Photo Courtesy of Biofriendly
Like many college campuses, the University of Southern California (USC) is a very large campus. On average it takes around 20 minutes to walk from one end of the campus to the other and in the middle of summer in LA, that 20 minutes can seem like a very long walk.
But don’t be fooled that just because the campus is in the middle of Los Angeles, students would rather have four wheels instead of two as their primary mode of transportation. Especially for students living on campus or in nearby housing, bicycles have become the ruling mode of emission-free transportation around USC.
Not only are bicycles an emission-free way to travel, but they are easy to park, easy to get around on, you can ride them on and off smaller pathways (without needing to stick to the streets), you get good exercise and they require no gasoline. What does all that equal? The perfect mode of transportation for any college student! Face it, it’s affordable and environmentally-friendly.
I have to say though, I personally tend to give credit to the movie Legally Blonde for re-popularizing the bicycle on college campuses. Of all the bikes you see at USC, the main one is the good ‘ole “Legally Blonde” bike (if you’ve seen the movie you know what I’m talking about). And no it doesn’t matter if you are a guy or a girl, everyone seems to be riding them.
A nice thing is that USC seems to be going along for the ride by making it easy for students to use their bikes to get around pretty much anywhere on campus. The only real places you can’t bring bikes are in the buildings. In addition, most of the main streets around USC have bike lanes, which make it that much easier for students to get to and from their housing. And if you go to usc.foresale in Google Groups, you can almost always find a great price on a used bike. So before you think about adding a car to the list of items needed for college, try getting a bicycle instead. It is gasoline-free, doesn’t require fuel additives to lower emissions and provides a good form of exercise and transportation. Take it from the number of bikes around USC….it has become the thing to do.
Tara is the author of Biofriendly Blog and a freelance online marketer/advertiser. She is interested in the environment/green issues, her kids & animals. Follow her on Twitter @biofriendlyblog.