For years schools across the country have looked to UC Davis as the leader in promoting a bike-friendly university campus.

But UC Davis bike coordinator David Takemoto-Weerts never had a formal plan of bike lane, parking or pathway projects, or a record of the campus's guiding bike philosophy to show schools, he said.

Now he does, thanks to a new, larger pot of money available in the Caltrans' Bicycle Transportation Account. The state fund for bike facility projects requires that communities applying for funds have a formal bicycling plan in place.

In past years, the Caltrans account had only about $360,000 for the entire state in it, so Takemoto-Weerts didn't much bother with the plan.

"That doesn't buy much," he said. "Maybe a couple miles of bike path somewhere." UC Davis' bicycle program also receives support from university parking fines, bike licensing fees, the local air quality district, state alternative transportation funds and some federal programs.

But slowly Caltrans has been building the bike account up, and this year the agency has $7.2 million in its coffers. Takemoto-Weerts is now more optimistic about the university's chances of receiving funding when it applies in the future, he said,

The bike program document, part of the campus's Transportation and Park-ing Services Long Range Access Plan released last month, contains a snapshot of the diverse perks - from free shower and locker space to enclosed "BikeLid" parking - UC Davis offers campus cyclists. It also lays out some goals Takemoto-Weerts and the TAPS staff would like to accomplish over the next few years.

For instance, later this summer, Facilities will pave a one-quarter mile stretch of the UC Davis Arboretum pathway loop that's always been dirt and gravel. The project will be paid for with federal dollars.

Takemoto-Weerts is also hoping to add bike lanes on Hutchison Drive between Highway 113 and County Road 98 where many research labs and the university airport are located. By the end of the summer, the campus should learn whether it will receive about $1.1 million in state transportation enhancement funding to build the lanes. Construction would begin next summer.

"A lot of folks really want that to happen as more and more facilities are built out that way," Takemoto-Weerts said.

The university has also recently received a $10,000 grant from the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District to replace substandard bike racks, such as those in the concrete pod style, with more secure racks.

Also in the planning stages are: improvements to the bike parking areas on the west side of Hickey Gym, east of Hunt Hall and near the Memorial Union bus hub; and the construction of a roundabout, controlling bicycle and pedestrian traffic at the intersection of North Quad and East Quad streets

These projects would be eligible for the increased state bike facility money, Takemoto-Weerts said.

Though not eligible for that funding, work on the campus's proposed historic bicycle museum is also high on Takemoto-Weerts' project list.

Last year, thanks to a $440,000 state grant for transportation museums, the university purchased more than 60 antique bicycles from a collector in Modesto. Takemoto-Weerts, Bike Barn manager Robert St. Cyr, former TAPS director Brodie Hamilton and several Davis bike enthusiasts are restoring the collection. And Takemoto-Weerts is looking for more grants to help move the collection - whose bikes date from 1820 to 1920 - out of campus storage and into a museum building.

"We're earnestly seeking a permanent home, but that's going to take a while," he said.

For the complete bike plan, see www.taps.ucdavis.edu/LRAP2002/BikePlanDraft11.htm.