<p>I plan to live off campus and want to save money by biking to class. I've been accepted to UCSD and UCI. Which is the more bike-friendly of the two? Are they evenly matched?</p>
<p>What about UCLA and Berkeley? I haven't received admission notification from them yet but it would be nice to know anyway. :)</p>
<p>UCSD is on a hill, so it’s not very bike friendly, in fact when I was there, I don’t think I saw anyone on bikes. The campus is much more bus oriented since UCSD students get to use the bus system for free. I’ve never been to UCI, but in all the pictures I have seen of it, there have been people on bikes, so Im assuming that it is fairly bike friendly. </p>
<p>Berkeley is bike friendly, is relatively flat, tho the campus is at a slant. Ive never been on the UCLA campus, nor have i looked a pictures of UCLA, so I can’t answer for that one.</p>
<p>The most bike friendly UC is Santa Barbara, followed by Davis. UCI third. In fact the school is built in a circle and there’s a bike path that has its own circle.</p>
<p>UCLA campus is very hilly (ain’t called the Hills of Westwood for nuthin’), but Westwood Village is flat and the area to the west (where the dorms and rentals are mostly situated) have both mild and steep hills. Further south – i.e south of Wilshire – anywhere south to UCLA is a really fine ride – slight slope heading north to Westwood, excellent mild down slope to Pico, followed by more flat terrain. If it gets too much for you, or you’re just tired, you can hop on the Big Blue Bus for 50 cents (show student I.D.) and put your bike on the bike rack in front of the bus.</p>
<p>Berkeley – the campus itself has it’s peaks and valleys and there’s certain areas on campus you are not permitted to bike – there are double lines that explain where biking is prohibited (like Sproul Plaza), so you get off the bike and walk. It’s easier to get around campus on foot, simply because bike stealing has become a bit of a hobby both on and off campus, so the time it takes to lock and unlock the bike and both wheels you might as well stash the bike and walk. However, the whole area around the campus is pretty flat and there is great biking opps and lots of students bike.</p>
<p>SD is way too hilly unless you’re an endurance biker, which I’m not – I personally hate hills.</p>
<p>i didn’t see any bikers at either school</p>
<p>yes i bike to school</p>
<p>uhm, uc davis is THE most bike friendly uc campus. the city of davis is one of the only u.s. cities with a “platinum” level of bike friendliness</p>
<p>[League</a> of American Bicyclists * Bicycle Friendly Community Campaign](<a href=“http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/communities/index.php]League”>http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/communities/index.php)</p>
<p>anyways ucla/ucsd/ucb didnt strike me as very bike friendly imo, and ive never been to irvine</p>
<p>@ cutieflutie: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. Davis is the most bike-friendly, but since he didn’t apply there, Berkeley would probably be next over UCLA for biking. I’ll note that I’ve never visited UCSB though.</p>
<p>UCI is bike friendly, UCSD not so much. UCSB is the best for bike/long board transportation, plus you get an amazing view while your at it!</p>
<p>@Lustrous Your post makes me want to visit SB now, I keep hearing from everyone about how amazing that place looks.</p>
<p>Is SD really not that bike friendly at all? I saw a lot of bikes when I visited so I was thinking that even though I’ll be bringing a car maybe I could get a bike as well for on-campus trips.</p>
<p>@ sunny: My friend used to bike around at UCSD. It is difficult because of how many hills there are. He stopped because his bike broke, but honestly UCSD is not the best place for biking. </p>
<p>My recommendation is: Yeah, grab a bike if you can handle the incline and everything, but it may prove to be more of a hassle.</p>
<p>
I have this odd feeling that you’re wrong.
</p>
<p>that said, UCI is in Irvine, Irvine is a planned city, most fo the ground is fairly level and given that UCI parking SUCKS, I was considering bicycling for a bit (I’m only a few miles away) I believe you also get free bus use when you go to UCI as well.</p>
<p>I’ve been to SB with my church group and with my family a few times, it does seem bicycle friendly and I even rented a 4 person “bicycle” (err what’s the name for those things?) with four wheels.</p>
<p>also hills shouldn’t really be an obstacle, ideally, you’d be in good enough of shape that they’d be largely irrelevant. I rode a bike to school for two years and I was a 80-100lbs weakling and went up a HUGEASS hill what should be an obstacle is how the city is laid out.</p>
<p>best picture I could get off google of said hugeass hill, note how the road falls off out of view… it’s a ***** of a half mile.
<a href=“ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs”>ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs;
<p>i go to uci and hella people bike here…hella bike friendly too…like someone else said they have a separate path for bikes…i did see someone hit a pedestrian with a bike tho and that wasn’t pretty lol…but yeah very bike friendly campus</p>
<p>I agree with everything xelink says.</p>
<p>UCSB = Biking everywhere.
UCB AND UCSD… I rarely have seen bikes in these two places
UCLA… I dont know.</p>
<p>Everywhere else doesnt matter cause I didnt apply to anywhere else :P</p>
<p>Although I often hear that Davis is supposedly the most bike friendly, to be honest, I still think that UCSB has more student bike commuters. Note that I’ve lived in both Davis and Isla Vista. A lot of the ranking websites consider the city of Santa Barbara and not Isla Vista CDP which I think skew the results. </p>
<p>I found that in Davis, a number of students take Unitrans to get to class due to the city being sprawled out. In Isla Vista, almost no one takes the bus to class except people at Santa Catalina who don’t want to bike to campus. </p>
<p><a href=“http://farm4.static.■■■■■■■■■■/3015/2513781891_831b58153e.jpg[/url]”>http://farm4.static.■■■■■■■■■■/3015/2513781891_831b58153e.jpg</a></p>
<p>@ xelink – you may be right, I may be wrong. My comments are simply my opinion based on my visiting each of the campuses and my observations, as well as my personal biking experiences, and my intimate knowledge of the UCLA and Berkeley campuses. </p>
<p>In any event, “best” and “worst” is almost always subjective.</p>
<p>I was very impressed by the bike paths at UCSB and the relatively flat terrain – my kind of biking! Also, UCSB is not in Santa Barbara; rather in Isla Vista, a short distance from Goleta up the coast.</p>
<p>Here are some linkes to UCSB’s bike offerings, photos, videos –</p>
<p><a href="http://www..com/university_of_california,_santa_barbara/videos/746/%5B/url%5D">http://www..com/university_of_california,_santa_barbara/videos/746/</a></p>
<p>[ucsb</a> bike path](<a href=“ucsb bike path”>ucsb bike path)</p>
<p>[Bicycle</a> Program](<a href=“http://tap.ucsb.edu/bicycle.aspx]Bicycle”>http://tap.ucsb.edu/bicycle.aspx)</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - UCSB Bike Path 10/24/08](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX9tKSvMqd0&feature=related]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX9tKSvMqd0&feature=related)</p>
<p>I’ll fully admit I’ve never been to UCSB or UCD. Heck, I haven’t even set foot on the UCI campus(have been to a few kickbacks in nearby apartments though) and that’s where I’ll be going.</p>
![http://farm4.static.■■■■■■■■■■/3015/2513781891_831b58153e.jpg[/url]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3015/2513781891_831b58153e.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
