In 1952, four men looking to raise awareness of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, made the trek on horseback from Brenham, Texas. Years later, the Trail Ride has grown into an annual event that sees riders from all over Texas converge in Houston. In February, Parking & Transportation Services held their version of a "trail" ride, albeit with bikes and scooters, as a playful nod to the longstanding rodeo tradition.
Parking & Transportation, in partnership with the University of Houston Police Department and Student Housing & Residential Life, mapped a "trail" ride from Cougar Woods Dining Commons to the Fertitta Center, ahead of the UH Women’s Basketball game versus Texas Christian University.
UHPD led the "trail" in a golf cart, a boombox serenading the ride as students and staff followed behind on their bikes and scooters. The "trail" ride marked Parking & Transportation second rodeo-themed event in February. It’s first event, Rodeo Craft Bash, gave students the opportunity to decorate a cowboy hat of their choosing.
The idea for a "trail" ride, much like the cowboy-decorating event, came from Parking & Transportation wanting to give students a taste of Houston rodeo season.
“This is such a big thing in Houston,” Gazelle Galvan, Parking & Transportation program coordinator said. “We wanted to make sure that the students and the UH community were able to participate in something along the lines of rodeo season. And bring a fun way to come out and participate.”
The partnership with Student Housing involved rewarding a pizza party to the residence hall with the most student participation in the "trail" ride. In this first year of the event, the winning residence was the University Lofts.
UHPD’s partnership involved an incentive for students who took part in the trail ride — free U-locks. The U-locks are the recommended lock for bikes and scooters on campus.
To obtain the free U-lock, students had to register their bike or scooter with Parking & Transportation. The incentive proved successful as students who joined the "trail" ride cited the U-lock as one of the reasons they participated.
Computer Science juniors Joseph Giáp and Syrus Tolentino needed locks and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ride as part of a trail. Both were unaware you could register a scooter, and did so promptly. But there was another reason to join the trail ride.
“It was a nice break from studying,” Giáp said.
Tolentino named the swag bag giveaways as another reason to join the "trail" ride.
Freshman Amaya Langford, an economics major, called the "trail" ride fun and hopes they do it again next year. Langford, like her friend Gillian Pitts, a psychology major, joined the "trail" ride for the U-lock.
“This is my first scooter, so I really needed to register it. So, perfect opportunity,” Pitts said.
UHPD Chief Ceaser Moore was among the UH staff to join the "trail" ride, noting it’s an important event for UHPD to be involved in.
“Scooter and bike security is very important,” Moore said. “We wanted to come out and model safe behavior on scooters and bikes.”
