By Laura Angus, media relations assistant
Professor Jay Meehan enjoys a nice bike ride in the morning. He likes to look around, see what’s going on, admire people’s gardens and get some exercise.
But he is also making his 14-mile commute from his home in Beverly Hills to campus.
The ride takes him about an hour, depending on the weather, and he tries to bike one way per day. For example, he drives to OU in the morning, and bikes home, leaving his car. The next morning, he’ll bike to work, and drive home.
He said he does it partially for the exercise, partially to be more environmentally friendly and also to save on gas money.
“I’m just fortunate that I’ve got a good route,” he said. “Everyone can find their own way of doing it. It’s easy and it really does pay off.”
He said he started biking when he was going to graduate school in Boston in the 1980s and has enjoyed biking since then. He lived in Madison, Wisc., for his post-doctorate work, and said that was a very bike-friendly town.
He started at OU in 1987 and continued biking a couple days a week during the spring and summer. He also bikes on weekends in addition to his work commute.
It’s harder now for him to fit biking into his schedule as chair of the sociology and anthropology department, but he said he does as much as he can.
“As chair, I don’t have as much freedom as when I wasn’t chair,” he said.
His wife also bikes to work in Farmington Hills, and they will bike to go on shopping trips when they can.
“We are pretty happy with the amount of money we save on gas,” Meehan said.
Kathy Barrett, administrative secretary for the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, said she also bikes to work once or twice a week from her home in Shelby Township. She plans to bike more often once the weather gets nicer.
She said she started biking to get more exercise, in addition to her morning runs.
She said she enjoys listening to music while she rides, and estimates she saves half a tank of gas a week.
“It’s a time to think,” she said. “I think about the day ahead of me and get things in perspective when I bike to work.”
Meehan said people planning on biking should find a good route, and obey the rules of the road like everyone else does.
For more information on biking in Michigan, including more safety tips, visit the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Web site.