|
Pedalmania
off-campus students also commute here by bicycle: the
product of Stanford land-use policies that created a close-by community
of scholars combined with new development that has pushed parking to the
edges of campus.
Add to this mix Palo Alto, routinely cited as one of America’s most
bike-friendly cities, and the looming Santa Cruz Mountains that are
training grounds for top competitive cyclists (including the Stanford
cycling club, the top-ranked college team in the nation for two years
running), and you have a true bicycling mecca.
A handful of campuses nationwide match the Farm in terms of bicycle
density. But the university may be unique in having its own
part-maddening, part-madcap cycling ecosystem, one where bicycles are
both predators and prey. Even as planners work to better channel this
flood tide to increase safety and reduce theft, many undergrads take a
perverse pride in a seat-of-the-pants cycling culture.
Prelude to Pedalmania
The campus has been prime
territory for bicycling from the beginning.
The first student cycling club formed in 1891 and an ancestor of today’s
bike shop served double duty as the campus telegraph office. Early on,
campus roads were closed to cars at the request of Jane Stanford
because, among other concerns, they frightened the horses.
|
