Director of Facilities Bob Schulz,

In June of 2005, I called you about the campus-wide signage update which was just announced. I asked what considerations had been given to bicycle signage, and if there were any plans to indicate bike routes, bike parking, and bike facilities on the signs. Answering that, these suggestions were good and useful, you instructed me to compose a letter detailing them. The email I sent 15 June 2006 on behalf of Green Wheels, then the Alternative Transportation Club, suggested that bike routes, bike parking, and the Bicycle Learning Center be included on campus signage, and that campus roads should be lined with occasional "Share the Road" signs, among other suggestions. You can read this original letter on the web. Your reply said these were good suggestions and would be considered.

Earlier this month, following news of the next phase about the campus-wide signage update (http://www.humboldt.edu/~facsmgmt/wayfinding/wayfinding.html), graduate student and current Green Wheels vice president Chris Rall emailed your office to ask, which, if any, of the suggestions were going to be implemented. The answer we received was that none would be. Today, I am emailing to ask "Why not?" and to see if some of these suggestions could still be implemented.

Green Wheels has several interests in the campus signage update. First is the development of sustainable transportation. Signage with useful information for bicyclists and bus riders not only makes their lives easier but also increases the visibility of these forms of transportation, helping them to slip more easily into people's consciousnesses of the world around them.

Second, transportation equity should be a primary consideration. As money is spent on projects like the new car-sized gateway and future parking garages, the needs of commuters who cannot afford to drive to school must also be looked after. Bicyclists, including those who are unfamiliar with our campus, need dependable signage to indicate safe campus bike routes and efficiently direct them to secure bike parking. Bus riders need at-a-glance schedule information and pointers to campus bus stops.

Third: While acknowledging that high parking prices can be an effective deterrent to the use of unsustainable transportation, we would like for parking to remain as affordable as possible for those who need to drive to school. Instead we prefer other strategies than pricing alone to encourage sustainable commuting. Bicycle signage may play a small, but nonetheless needed role to reduce the need for extremely expensive new structured parking spaces (up to $30,000/space, we're told).

Fourth, Green Wheels members have valued the education they have received at Humboldt State University and want to do everything we can to ensure that in the future a new generation of students will have an equal or superior educational experience at this institution. We are sure that sustainable transportation fits into this university's professed mission (available in the strategic plan). Along those lines, signage for alternative transportation must be a part of a successful "brand image" for HSU. Sustainable transportation will attract more and higher-quality students to HSU, and inspire the students who come here to continue using sustainable transportation after they graduate as they make a difference in the world.

Fifth, several Green Wheels members have chosen Arcata or nearby communities to live after they graduate. Many even own houses in these communities. These students/community members are working to make transportation sustainable off campus, especially in Arcata. With roughly 8000 people commuting to the same place every day, the university community is the most appropriate and best opportunity to begin promoting and developing sustainable transportation. Whatever gains are made in the university community will likely set an example to catalyze progress in the larger community.

Green Wheels reiterates our suggestions offered in June of 2005 for all of the above reasons. We also offer one additional suggestion: that HSU's two bus stops, at library circle and at the intersection of B and 14th streets, be indicated on the new signs, along with the transit systems that serve them, and their schedules.

Thank you for your consideration. Please let us know if you need further information to incorporate these ideas. If you would use reply-all to respond to this message it would be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Aaron Antrim
Green Wheels President
Parking and Transportation Committee student representative

"Carbon-copy" recipients:

• Green Wheels public email list and core email group (187 members, faculty, administration, staff, students, and community members)
• Green Wheels online Google-indexed message archive
• HSU Social and Environmental Responsibility Coalition (100 email group members)
• HSU Parking and Transportation Committee members
• Lumberjack
• Arcata Eye
• Eureka Reporter
• Times Standard
• North Coast Journal
• Big Foot Bicycle Club
• Humboldt Bay Bike Commuters Association

Note: This letter was written on an antique laptop running Ubuntu Linux in Parras, Coahuila Mexico. Check out the HSU summer program.

Other letters of support on this issue

From: "Mary Scoggin" (xi_muli at hotmail.com)
Date: 6 July 2006 4:38:21 AM PDT
To: rcs7002 at humboldt.edu
Cc:
Subject: campus signage update

Dear Mr. Schultz,

I am writing to support the efforts of Aaron Antrim, Chris Rall and all the member of Green Wheels in their effort to contribute to the campus signage update. Their efforts to highlight alternative transportation are important, and of significant advantage to our campus. They make many good points (complete with useful histories and hyperlinks, all remotely projected from an HSU study abroad program!). I do want to emphasize some practical aspects and the positive image their suggestions promote. As a bicycle commuter to campus and in the community, I can attest to the importance of clear signage, not only for directing traffic, but also, as they mention, simply to remind drivers that there are many modes of travel all sharing the road. I think it is important for Humboldt State to be a model in this regard.

I also want to mention that promotion and user-friendly visibility of alternative transport is also important to our reputation. From the graduation pledge to the stated core values to the recruitment brochures, our university says that it teaches ways to improve our society and our environment, and we promise to be a model for our community in this regard. Let us do that.

Sincerely,

Mary Scoggin, Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
(currently in China)

From: "alissa sobo" (ams101 at humboldt.edu)
Date: 6 July 2006 6:36:55 PM PDT
To: rcs7002 at humboldt.edu
Cc: greenwheels-core at googlegroups.com
Subject: campus bicycle signage

Mr. Schultz, i have been an HSU student for two years now, riding my bike to campus every single day. i have paid a lot of money to the school, and i should recieve equal treatment for it. i want signs on the campus indicating safe bike routes and parking. my preferred mode of tansportation should be considered just as much in campus improvement as wasteful, polluting metal death machines. look around the campus more carefully and you will undoubtedly see that an ENORMOUS amount of the student population rides a bike or bus to school. we don't need ugly parking structures to go along with the incredibly CHEESY front gates; we need the school to push alternative transportation before everything every student loves about humboldt is concreted over.

incredibly concerned and paying student,

Alissa Sobo

From: Peacock (mtp13 at humboldt.edu)
Date: 6 July 2006 11:01:20 PM PDT
To: rcs7002 at humboldt.edu
Cc: greenwheels-core at googlegroups.com
Subject: Bike friendly signage

Hello, I support bike friendly signs. Of course I also support signs in general, having gotten lost during my visit to campus. However, I still transfered here without the signs, so anything would be an improvement.

The importance of signs speaking to all types of vehicles, human powered and oil powered is worth considering. What I see is the signs being used by new students for the first couple of semesters, but they could provide invaluable help to all who travel the campus. Plus, having signs that speak about bicycle travel serve to point out that we have a very friendly campus for other modes of transportation than the car.

Thank you for your consideration.

~Peacock