It doesn't need to be said, but Blacksburg is cold in February.
It's OK to use this as an excuse to snuggle up to strangers on the Blacksburg Transit and blast the car heat on the commute to campus and around town. However, with spring in the near future, some are embracing the thriving biking scene in Blacksburg.
"People don't realize how easy it is to get on a bike," said Yusef Messallam, senior electrical engineering major and founder of the Blacksburg Bicycle Cooperative. "You can do your grocery shopping, commute to work or to school, anything really."
A recent push for Americans to reduce their ecological footprint has led many to pull out their bikes and commute. According to the Energy Information Administration, about 28 percent of energy Americans use goes into transportation, and biking instead of commuting is a step toward going green.
"Cycling is good for the environment, good in a financial sense, and good for the campus," said Debby Freed, alternative transportation manager for Virginia Tech. "The fewer cars on campus, the more pedestrian and bike friendly the campus becomes."
Biking to work or to class also comes with many advantages to personal health.
"Biking is easier than running, it's more joint-friendly, and it's easier on your knees," said Mike Blount, manager of Hokie Spokes, a local bike shop. "Even if you're not eating right, you're smoking, you're drinking, you're still riding your bike and I would encourage everyone to do it for health reasons."
On campus, biking provides an opportunity to reduce the stress of finding on-campus parking. While it has become increasingly apparent that Tech has developed a parking problem, bike racks have sprung up all over campus.
"We've been working with residential and dining to put out the new style of bike racks," Freed said. "We are trying to make sure every building has a convenient bike rack located near the entrance."
In the town of Blacksburg, conditions for bikers are not so accommodating. Blount said that although over the past five to six years the town has made some improvements, many feel a lot more can be done.
"Other than a fence, there's no designated spot to park bikes. We need to create bigger bike lanes and more areas," Blount said. "I think there's a lot more to be done about shifting biking to everyday commuting rather than just sport."
Blount compared Blacksburg to other countries such as Amsterdam, which rely very little on vehicle parking and sometimes have bike lanes larger than the roads.
Despite less-than-perfect conditions for bikers around Blacksburg, the scene continues to grow. There are many ways to get involved in biking through groups like the Blacksburg Bicycle Collective, the New River Valley Bicycle Association and the Virginia Tech Cycling Team.
"The town of Blacksburg is great," said Eric Chrabot, senior economics major and president of the Virginia Tech Cycling Team. "Blacksburg is a petri dish for cycling."
The Virginia Tech Cycling Team is a club team that offers a mountain bike team that competes in the fall and the more intense road team that competes in the fall and spring and annually sends riders all over the region and country. Beginners have a lot of opportunity to work with more skilled riders, such as freshman Ben King, who placed in the top 20 in Mexico while competing for the world championship title last year.
The Blacksburg Bicycle Collective is a unique cooperative in Blacksburg. They hold sessions every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday where members of the community can bring in their bikes and use the tools and expertise provided by the group. They also involve themselves in the community by participating in various service projects; last year they worked in conjunction with the Pilot Refugee Center building and donated six bikes to refugee boys aged 12 to 19.
"We're not focused on bikes in and of themselves; we're more focused using bicycles as a means for other platforms," Messallam said about the goals of the Blacksburg Bicycle Collective. "When you're on a bicycle, you're in touch with your environment."
Blackburg offers bike shops close to campus such as Hokie Spokes and East Coasters, both located on North Main Street. Messallam will also be opening up Bicycle Underground on South Main Street on March 9.
"Support your local bike shop because those guys have learned the trade," Blount said. "There are schools out there for us and most of us have worked with bikes all our lives."
Although fixed gear bikes, also called "fixies," have been gaining a lot of popularity partly because of what Messallan describes as a "more pure form of biking," Blount said he would suggest a comfort commuter bike for riding around Blacksburg.
A lot of upcoming events and opportunities are arising this spring for the community to become involved in Blacksburg's biking scene. The annual Bike Challenge during April challenges Blacksburg citizens to commute on their bikes and even provides a Web site where you can sign up individually or as a team and log in miles biked. On March 14, Freed, along with the Virginia Tech Police, will be on the Drillfield so students can register their bikes. The weekend of April 5 and 6 the Virginia Tech cycling team will be hosting a race that will ride through Smith Mountain Lake.
"I encourage people, especially as the weather gets nicer, to get out there and use your bikes," Freed said.