Students Change Lives One Bike at a Time

I met today with a recent alumni from the University of Connecticut named Jessica Mortell in South Florida.  She has spent the last year developing a bicycle sharing program for the densely populated center of the university. Fitting upon the subject matter, we rode our bicycles to a local park to conduct the interview. Sitting on a bench surrounded by the plethora of birds who migrated South, we began discussing the environment.  ”We humans have a tremendous impact upon our environment,” says Mortell who has a civil engineering degree.  ”I want to work and protect against  urban sprawl.”  Mortell, like so many of her peers, wants to redesign the way we live, work, and transport ourselves.  

     A year ago a friend of Mortell’s suggested the creation of a bicycle plan as they were studying for exams.  The two debated the reality of such a program and from there the seeds of an organization was established.  Starting in the Spring of 2008, Mortell began investigating the steps needed to begin such a program.  Fortunate for her, she discovered a Senior Design Project from 2005.  Available through the Institute of Transportation Engineers at UConn, the project provided information on university density, projected bike lanes, paths, location of racks, etc.  Since the design of the program was previously created, her next step was to confront the bureaucratic juggernaut known as “The Administration.”