Here I am again, back in the Forum pages to tell you about Things On Campus That Grind My Gears. This time, it’s my actual gears!
As an avid campus cyclist — that’s right, they made those special green bike paths for ME — bike racks are a part of my daily routine. Eat, sleep, wake, bike rack. Small, unnoticeable, geometric, gray objects to others, a bike rack to me is a safe haven. There is no better way to protect something you care about than to chain it to a heavy metal triangle bolted to the ground. Don’t read Crime and Incident, the bike thieves can’t hurt you.
But sometimes, when I arrive to class after crossing the Cut like it’s the Tour de France, causing unsuspecting walkers to writhe under my impatient glare as I pass them, I come to find that there is no good place to lock my bike on the racks that the university has so generously provided for us all around campus.
If you’ve ever entered the Cohon University Center through the secret Au Bon Pain side door facing Forbes Avenue, you know what I’m talking about. The covered area outside that door is a veritable Forbidden Forest of Bicycles. They’re strewn across the concrete, they’re locked to themselves like dogs with their tails between their legs, they’re mixing and mingling like it’s 1999. It’s upsetting and scary to not be able to find a spot for your own bike among the hullabaloo.
I’m not complaining that there are too many bike riders on campus, or even that there aren’t enough racks. I love that our campus and students are so bike-friendly and bike-oriented, and that the university cares enough to place racks in convenient locations. I don’t really think our campus could hold more racks, honestly.
But every now and then I notice one culprit that makes the situation just a little bit worse: E-bikes.
You know them, you love them (or maybe you hate them as they pass you on your uphill climb going 20 miles an hour without pedaling), and you see them parked with analog bikes in racks all around campus. Though they might seem to have the profile of a regular bike, the battery that powers them is typically about four to six inches wide. They often have specialized monitors and other attachments on the handlebars, and sometimes they’re even fitted to look more like motorcycles than bikes, with saddlebags and wide tires that look like they came out of a Dunkin’ Donuts.
All things considered, they take up more space on a rack than a regular bike, whether it’s because their handlebar is in the way or because their tire prevents you from using the same part of the rack on the other side. And while I respect everyone’s right to a little vroom vroom, I wonder if there isn’t a better way to make more space for more bikes.
A natural solution would be to designate some racks as being just for e-bikes. But I wonder often, who is riding these? Is it students? Or faculty and staff who use them for their daily commute? This seems plausible to me, and so I wonder if these folks would kindly just store their bikes in their offices since they know they will not be using them during the day. This way, they would be safe from bike thieves as well! (Wait, what bike thieves?)
In many ways, this argument also applies to anyone riding a wheeled vehicle that has extra stuff on it — crates, saddlebags, bike computers, and those funny little bells that gently signal to pedestrians that you are better than them. Take it inside if you can! And if you can’t, try your best to park it on the outer edges of the rack where it won’t get in the way of folks with smaller bikes who can squeeze in the middle.
And as I come to the conclusion of my TED Talk, I want to remind campus bikers of all modalities and bike sizes: I love you so much. Be kind to drivers and pedestrians, stop at red lights when you can, and check your tire pressure. Keep riding. Never change.
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