Hi everyone,
When I enrolled as a freshmen at WVU, and came in for my photo ID, the woman working there asked me for my Driver's License. When I explained that I didn't have one because I refused to drive, she said "Oh, you are one of those people." The first message I got at WVU, a place of higher learning, was that I was somehow a failure to society because of my choice not drive, and it really bothered me. Ofcourse, this message is still alive and strong at WVU, and lot of work and effort is put into helping students bring their automobiles to school, rather than providing facilities for alternative modes of transportation. WVU may be improving their attitude, but they have a long, long way to go.
WVU is a unique situation, first, it is large and complex, second, it constitutes a huge percentage of the transportation that exists in Morgantown, hence it is a great target if we want to get clear results. Every major goal we have defined includes WVU. Now we have to figure out how to implement these goals. This will take well planned strategies where individuals from our Board will communicate and help coordinate with WVU the vision of the Bicycle Board.
First, we need to figure out what will be our operating parameters, and present our plan to the Traffic Commission. For those who missed the meeting last Thursday, so far Jim Rye, Tyler Pearson, and I have expressed an interest in being on this committee. If you are interested please email me soon so that I can arrange a meeting. If we can get our plan to the TC by October, we can move that much faster in reaching our goals.
Thank-you,
Jonathan