Column: Wood’s Stock; Bike lanes aren’t a necessity, Proposal will create more problems than it will fix
Recently a resolution was passed by ASUSU’s Executive Council to put bike lanes on the major walkways on campus. All year long there have been many small steps for biker-kind made such as: last march, campus policy was revised to allow bikes on all walkways at all hours of the day, last October there was a campaign to get Logan designated as “bike-friendly,” and probably most notably was the birth of Aggie Blue Bikes, a program that allows students to “check out” bikes for a period of time similar to books at a library.
These are all good things; bike lanes, however, are not. Today while walking to class I counted a total of six bikes go by within a 50-yard radius of me. There were no screams, no pools of blood surrounding lifeless corpses, no wild stampedes of pedestrians attempting to flee out of the deranged maniacal path of these savage killers. They came, they biked, they conquered; and I doubt anyone even gave them a second thought.
I have been both a pedestrian and a biker on campus and I have yet be involved in a collision on either end, nor have I ever heard of anyone having such. The closest I ever came to a tricky situation was when a student, on foot, was sprinting to class and nearly blindsided me on my bicycle. Yet it is the few, the proud, the bikers who are being kenneled like wild animals.
The pre-lane buzz has the specs for these “improvements” at being four feet wide running both ways, and enforced by campus police. I’m not entirely sure what sidewalks the Executive Council has been taking to class but even Main Street between the TSC and AG SCI can get pretty cozy during those peak five minutes before classes start. Cutting four feet off the edges to serve six bikers is as imprudent as it is unnecessary. Throw campus police into the mix and we have ourselves the making of a first class party.
From the Blotter 10/3/07:
“Campus police responded to the sidewalk in front of the business building on report of an individual on a bicycle venturing outside of the designated “bike-lanes.” Police gave the individual ten lashings and then proceeded to remove his fingernails with a pair of needle-nose pliers, no further action was taken.”
The addition of these lanes will not only be a detriment to bikers – and believe me it will – but appear to serve no benefit to pedestrians whatsoever. If anything it will be an annoyance to them as well. I haven’t ridden my bike on campus since fall; I know the best of both worlds and this resolution stands to rain on everyone’s parades.
Josh Wood said it best in the Statesman last Wednesday, “I’m not convinced that it’s necessary on campus … I don’t view it as a problem.” Simply put, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
After bike lanes, what’s next – a lane for skateboards, roller blades, scooters, those ugly shoes with the wheels in the soles? Are we going to come to campus five years from now and see a myriad of sectioned zones telling everyone where they can or cannot go? I have a dream that one day walkers and bikers will be able to travel together on sidewalks of brotherhood, and not be judged by their method of transportation.
If there’s extra money to be spent, give it to something proactive such as Aggie Blue Bikes, a tremendous program that I tip my hat to. Currently there is not a problem, so why make a problem out of it? To install these lanes is to make mountains out of molehills and, frankly, there’s bigger fish for us to fry.
Comments and questions can be sent to bcwood@cc.usu.edu.