U-PASS Profiles

Bicycling: Profile

(originally published in the Fall 2000 U-Commute News)

Edward D. Lazowska, Chair Department of Computer Science & Engineering

Biking is an energy-efficient and healthy way to commute to work. In the Summer U-PASS News we asked you to tell us about your biking commute. 

Approximately six percent of the UW population commutes by bicycle to campus.  Ed Lazowska, chair of Computer Science & Engineering, is one of these bicyclists. His six and half mile commute from Ballard to the University combines rollerblading in the summer and bicycling the rest of the year. His journey, a total one-hour round trip, gives him his day's worth of exercise. 

Bicycling to work is typically individual time. However, this past summer, Ed shared his commute with his son who was home from college. "He (my son) would ride his bike and I would rollerblade. We would have good talks in the morning. We would split off at the Fremont Bridge, where he'd head downtown. In the evening we would meet at the bridge, and ride the rest of the way home together." 

As a board member of the Washington Software Alliance, Ed rides his bike to board meetings scheduled downtown. He finds riding his bike easy and faster than the bus, but on occasion, when he travels to the eastside, he drives to work. On these days, "I use my U-PASS and get a discounted price on Individual Commuter Tickets (ICT)." The ICT allow him to park on campus in a designated lot at a discounted rate for the occasional driver. He would like the parking system to provide even greater incentives for occasional use and carpooling, versus daily single-occupancy commuting. 

He is pleased with the savings he receives from both his ICTs and his bike, "My bike has paid for itself many times over. I don't ride an expensive bike to work, so I don't feel guilty about not maintaining it myself. Plus, ASUW Bike Repair in the HUB is inexpensive, convenient and they do great work." The only additional expense to his commute is the annual $50 he spends on a bicycle locker; a locker he has had since before the  U-PASS program. 

According to the 1998 U-PASS Survey only 5% of students, staff and faculty felt weather was a determining factor in choosing not to ride their bike to work, "The weather isn't as big a problem as you might think." During really wet weather Ed makes better use of Metro than he would without his U-PASS. 

Ed rides smart. His only serious accident in 23 years of bicycle commuting in Seattle involved an animal on the Burke-Gilman trail. (This ignores the time he was hit by a car while a graduate student in Toronto, breaking all three bones in his left leg!)  "You've got to be defensive, but I honestly think there are more dangerous bicyclists than dangerous drivers." 

Ed has found bicycling to the University works for him. Over the past ten years the University has spent over $600,000 on bicycle storage facilities, and widening and improvements to the Burke-Gilman trail.  "I saw the bicycle improvements the University was making and I looked at the U-PASS as my contribution." 

Read about other staff and faculty biking stories.