I live about four miles away from campus, but I do not own a car. I use my bike to get everywhere, and in my opinion it is the best form of transportation, especially when on a college campus.
If you’ve been on one of my tours, you’ll know that I enjoy talking about the benefits of biking. It is substantially less expensive than owning and operating a car. No payments, no gas, no insurance, no parking pass. It’s a big factor in the fact that I am on my way to graduating with no debt whatsoever.
Biking also keeps you healthy. Even on days when I might be too busy to get a workout in at the gym, I can sleep soundly knowing that I still biked almost 10 miles just in my commute to and from school.
The one potential downside to biking is that cars can go faster. My roommate and I one day were going to the same building on campus, and left at the same time from our house, so we decided to experiment and see who could get there first. Him in his car, or me on my bike. He definitely beat me to campus, but he needed to park and walk for a few minutes to get to the building. Meanwhile I could ride my bike straight up to the building, lock it at the bike rack (of which there are many on campus) and walk right in. He got there as I was locking my bike up, so we concluded it is almost the exact same amount of time, everything included.
That roommate now owns his own bike, and he bikes to school a few days a week as well!
In addition to the aforementioned bike racks, UTD also has bike repair stations. These are set up around campus, and have pumps, tools, and instructions on how to fix basic issues. I have definitely made use of them, and I am grateful that UTD is such a bike friendly campus. Whoosh!
Greg Mork
B.S. Economics & Finance
Class of 2018
University of Texas at Dallas
**Fun fact: UT Dallas also offers a bike-sharing service called Zagster! Zagster allows the UT Dallas community to rent a bike by the hour to make it easier to get across campus even if you don’t own your own bike. For more information about Zagster, visit: http://www.utdallas.edu/services/transit/bike/
Life as a UT Dallas Comet! 