Atlanta — David Hanson describes himself as a cycling addict — a guy who owns a half-dozen road bikes, spends his spare time training for benefit rides, and dreams of one day opening a bike shop, where he can fiddle with bikes all day long. For now, he has a respectable if more staid position as the associate vice president for administration at Emory University — but with a recent project, he has managed to wrap his love for biking into his job.

A couple of years ago, Mr. Hanson wrote to a handful of major bike manufacturers in hopes of starting a partnership that would get more Emory students on pedals and out of their cars. Fuji, a bike company, responded right away, and Pat Cunnane, the president of Fuji made a trip to Emory to shoot pictures of the campus, look at bike culture in the area, and find out whether a bike program would be viable on campus. Atlanta, unlike New York City or Portland, Ore., isn’t exactly known for being a good biking town. In fact, it rates at the bottom of some lists of bike-friendly cities in biking magazines.

At least around Emory, Mr. Hanson, with the help of Fuji and a local bike shop, are trying to change that. They have set up a program under which students, professors, and staff members can buy Fuji bikes at deep discounts, with a helmet and a lock thrown in the deal. Fuji also provided a $50,000 grant that Emory could use to buy bikes and equipment for raffles and giveaways, to get buzz going about the biking program. (Walk around the campus, and you see banners and signs promoting the bike program everywhere.)

At the same time, the university is trying to rejigger infrastructure and policy to make biking more convenient and safe. Roads around the university are being re-striped for bike lanes, and the university is in the process of mapping out the safest routes to campus. All new buildings have showering and changing facilities as standard, but the university is also considering retrofitting existing buildings with locker rooms. There is also a campaign at the university to inform managers about the program and to tell them to be flexible about when employees show up, to allow time for the commute. Being flexible about office attire is also part of the campaign. (Some administrators have bought in completely. Michael Mandl, the executive vice president for finance and administration, now walks or bikes to work every day, having left his car at his second home in North Carolina for the summer.)

Incoming students get e-mail messages informing them about the bike program. The program started a little late in the admissions cycle last year, so only about 100 students bought bikes. Officials from Emory and Fuji expect the buy-in to be much higher this year — so high, in fact, that Fuji is designing a bike in “Emory blue” that students can buy through the program. Fuji will also manufacture up to 40 bike racks, at Emory’s design specifications, to be placed around campus.

Bicycle South, the bike shop associated with the program, is also pitching in by setting up a mobile repair facility that will visit the campus at two locations on two days of the week and offer services, for a fee. The ultimate goal, says Mr. Hanson, is to set up a permanent bike shop on campus. It’s not clear whether Mr. Hanson will give up his administrator’s job to work there. —Scott Carlson