Fifteen minutes. This is approximately the most amount of time it will take me to briskly walk to my furthest class (10 if I break into a jog once or twice). For some it is more - for most, less. And for those Brown scholars tucked nicely into the bosom of Grounds, five minutes would be the max unless you have that dreaded discussion in McLeod. What to do? Although fifteen minutes isn't too atrocious, we efficient human beings are always looking for one more excuse to hit 'snooze.' While most have assumed that ten more minutes isn't really going to get you through the day without passing out in your next class, some have found the light. This light shone down as a metal contraption with two wheels, a combination lock, and a potential to scare the hell out of pedestrians.
I'm speaking, obviously, of bicycles. Efficient, economical, expeditious - bikes stand (rather, wobble) for the qualities we strive for in our lives. We want to get to class early, to the dining hall before it closes, and to Scott Stadium before kickoff (not a joke anymore). Yet, as nimble as you may be on your feet, getting between one and the other is not going to happen as fast as you would like. Bikes provide a means of getting from Point A to Point B in a third of the time and also a means to look super cool while doing it. How many of you out there sneer or chuckle at that nerd (me) running to the catch the UTS bus before it leaves in one minute? Most likely there are a fair amount of y'all out there; but would you rather be this guy: the newest Astana member in training whipping through traffic, knocking girls over, and popping the occasional wheelie? Although the attitude towards them may not be haughty or condescending, mine certainly is one of anger. The University has taken strides to ensure safety for the bikers, but have hung the poor pedestrians out to be picked off one by one.
In 2007, the University noticed this increasing use of bicycles around Grounds and was swift in enacting a master plan of sorts to alleviate the problems they were encountering. Their questionnaires targeted staff, faculty, and appropriately students to gain substantial knowledge ranging from how often they lock the bikes to where they ride them. Over 80 percent of this sample owned a bike and 64 percent use them to commute to grounds. Assuming that this survey can be representative of our community as a whole, this indicates that over half (a few thousand) are biking to and around Grounds every day. Clearly this is not the case, unless I am missing this stampede inundating McCormick every afternoon, but on any given day there will be more than a handful. The problems exist in the 50 percent of riders admitting to riding on sidewalks and brick pathways to get to class, clearly practicing for their mountain bike time trials the next weekend. Substantial designated bike pathways have been painted and identified with the image of a bicycle on them. Stay off my sidewalk, please. The roads have been widened. The "Watch for Bikers" signs have been posted. Why can't you use them?
The Share the Road movement picked up a lot of relevance and popularity in recent years with the hike in gas prices and hike in the amount of commuters travelling on bikes. They preach to car drivers to be wary of fellow bicyclists as they have the same rights to the road as you do and to ensure their safety as much as yours. What some cyclists have yet to realize though, is that the street goes two ways.
Fight all you want for more rights on the road with motor vehicles, just understand that those laws that drivers get ticketed and hounded for still apply to you. You still have to obey all traffic devices; just because a light is red and the cars have stopped does not mean you can come barreling through a crosswalk at 30 miles per hour. Use your hand signals and especially recognize when the pedestrians around you (possibly your friends or professors) cannot see you. I was even shoved once last week by some over-assuming biker who thought it was my fault he almost put a few of Newton's law of motions to the test between us. Ride predictably, and most importantly, ride on the road. When was the last time you saw a car cruising down the sidewalk? Unless it was on the World's Most Extreme and Dangerous Videos in Taiwan, I doubt you have at all.
Many cyclists riding to class see themselves as the equivalent of pedestrians and try to get there as fast as they can. They fail to realize the danger they are placing themselves and us in doing so. The University has its responsibility as well to recognize and control these problems. As insignificant as it may seem to pull over and ticket a rogue biker, I don't find getting my foot run over and broken insignificant at all. How fast would you get around if I popped your tire? Then we'd both have a bad wheel.
Bobby Laverty is an Opinion Editor for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at b.laverty@cavalierdaily.com.
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