BFU Application Process

There is one Bicycle Friendly University application cycle a year -- the deadline is typically late summer, with awards announced in the fall. A new cycle begins shortly after an application cycle closes, so applicants have several months to fill out the online application.

This comprehensive inquiry is designed to yield a holistic picture of an applicant institution's work to promote bicycling on campus and in the surrounding community.

After a brief review of the general institution profile, the applicant will continue to the audit portion of the application, which asks questions about the college or university’s engineering, education, encouragement, evaluation, and equity efforts.

Most questions are multiple choice but write-in fields can be used to provide more details. This comprehensive inquiry is designed to yield a holistic picture of an applicant institution’s work to promote bicycling. We refer to these sections as the Five Es. Before the application is submitted, applicants can upload supplemental material such as photos and other supporting documentation that will be reviewed by the judging panel together with the application.

To learn more about the application process, visit the Getting Started page.

Campus Survey

Following the BFU deadline, the League distributes campus surveys to students, staff, faculty, and local bike advocates who may be familiar with biking conditions on each applicant campus. 

The campus survey is distributed in a number of ways:

• Applicant schools are asked to distribute the survey locally on campus through their website, social media, list servs, etc. (This step is strongly encouraged, but not required for applicants.)
• The League will send the survey to all campus-based, local, and statewide bike advocates identified on the BFU application, or who are organizational members of the League. 

Award Determination

Once all local feedback is received through the campus surveys, that input is shared with the judging panel. Each judge then takes about 3-4 weeks to review each application, together with any supplemental material and the survey feedback. Applications that receive a range of award suggestions are discussed during a review meeting.

Learn more about BFU Award Levels and General Scoring Guidelines.