On a warm spring day, Iowa State’s campus appears to swell with people. Eager to enjoy the outdoors after a long winter, students pack the sidewalks and roadways as they head to their next class.

CyRide drivers carefully navigate the crowded streets, keeping a wary eye out for distracted students that jaywalk in front of their bus. Meanwhile, bikers intermittently zip past the buses and precariously weave through the throngs of students on the crosswalks.

This rush hour scene is a daily occurrence all around campus. It’s an accident waiting to happen.

“The current infrastructure doesn’t support the amount of traffic we have every day throughout campus,” said Lt. Elliott Florer of the ISU Police Department. “More students biking and walking only increases the chance for a negative interaction between the two.”

With enrollment at ISU increasing each academic year, more students are biking to and from class than ever before. Because of the lack of proper infrastructure on campus, these bikers often find themselves unsure of their place on the roadways and sidewalks. This confusion, coupled with increased congestion, creates a greater potential for incidents involving bikes, vehicles and pedestrians.

Iowa State tasked Industrial Design 592, a class of engineering, design and community planning graduate students, with developing a transportation plan that benefits bikers, pedestrians and motorists. They generated a multi-phase proposal to reduce crowding and improve transportation safety on campus. Additionally, Student Government is developing a website for bike information and is planning to submit an application to be classified as a Bike Friendly University.