Bikers’ safety on campus needs to be addressed

TO THE EDITOR:

I fell off my bike last week. But I am not writing to whine. Nor am I writing to cast blame at the woman walking in front of me.

She was walking in a straight line, until she stepped to the side — right as I was passing her. I braked, flew over my handlebars and into the street. The bike fell on top of me. She was really kind and helped me up and out of the street; I was a little dazed.

It was my fault. I was riding on a sidewalk, which is not the best choice. But I was riding on the sidewalk because I was going the wrong way up a one way street. Another poor choice.

However, I was doing that to avoid Columbia Street. If you have not ridden a bike down Columbia Street, you might not have noticed that there is a place where the buses cross over the bike lane to get into their lane.

And then, the bike lane disappears altogether, right as a merge opens up to the right — across from where the bikers would be! All that is before you get into the area in front of the Carolina Inn, which barely fits the lanes of vehicles, much less a bike as well.

My point is this: Biking commuters are forced to make choices between a bad idea and a less bad idea, on a fairly regular basis on campus. There are a lot of us, but accommodations for us are minimal. I was lucky that there was not a car coming. But as our numbers increase, someone is bound to run out of luck.

I implore the Department of Public Safety to make biking safety a priority. The numbers are only going to grow.



Ellen Chetwynd
First-year Masters Student
Public Health