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Oxford, a traditionally pedestrian-friendly city, is now becoming more bicycle-friendly as well, a trend that some students and Vice Mayor Prue Dana hope Miami University will follow.
Because of the bike lanes that were added last winter on Bishop and University streets, bicyclists in Oxford no longer have to spend a majority of their ride evading pedestrians and cars.
Dana, who cycles to work everyday, believes that riding has its advantages.
"Riding around brings a whole new perspective to transportation," Dana said.
This development known as Share the Road mounted signs on Fairfield and Spring streets last spring to encourage drivers to be on the lookout for bicyclists.
According to Dana, the signs and the bike lanes were recommendations from Miami's Institute of Environmental Sciences (IES) after the completion of a study, "Promotion of Bicycling as a Viable Form of Transportation in Oxford, O.H." Developed in 2006, the study tackled the issues of traffic, parking and cycling safety in uptown Oxford.
Although the city is hoping to add additional routes in the future, these are the only places in Oxford that currently advocate for bicycle awareness.
While the city has seen progress with the bike lanes uptown, Miami has yet to implement them around campus, overlooking recommendations from the IES, Directorate of the IES department Sandra Woy-Hazleton explained.
"The plans are there as well as what the university needs to do to get them implemented," Woy-Hazleton said. "We feel that the project was researched, done very well and that great recommendations were made. We can only hope that they will be applied."
Uptown, Dana believes that the bike lanes aren't the only reason people are riding more. She believe more people are doing so because it is a quicker mode of transportation.
"(Bicycling is) the convenient thing to do," Dana said. "You get on your bike at your door and get off at your office door. It's nice because you don't have to worry about buses or parking-you go from one destination to the other."
And because of this, several people have voiced a desire for a lanes on the Miami campus.
Miami senior Michael Metherd said that due to the difficulties he has had trying to navigate his own bike around campus, bike lanes would be good for the university to further look into.
"It's tough for bikes to go on sidewalks because of the walkers, yet it is too dangerous to ride in the street," Metherd said. "We need a happy medium."
After recently visiting the campus, Dana is now not only vying for bike lanes in Oxford but for ones at Miami, claiming that not having them puts pedestrians and bicyclists in danger.
And while Dana said cycling offers many benefits to the community, she said she also believes if more students began riding their bikes, it would have a very positive effect on the flow of traffic-and the limited amount of parking uptown.
"The students could change the way Oxford looked overnight," Dana said. "If they all decided to bring bikes, the cars could be stored someplace, the streets would not be clogged, you could find parking."
