Welcome back to campus, everybody! I’m here to tell you about a hip new trend that is taking Eugene by storm. It’s called biking. Some of you may have heard of this radical new type of exercise and transportation, but judging by the behavior on campus, this concept is foreign to many. I thought I’d give you a brief introduction to this exciting new happening in your community.
You may ask, “Why put all that energy into propelling one of those two-wheeled death machines when you could just as easily drive, bus and/or walk to wherever you have to go?” There are many compelling reasons. The economists amongst us choose to do so for efficiency gains (biking is five times more efficient than walking), the environmentalists for obvious reasons, the health nuts also for obvious reasons and some just for the pure joy of the activity.
Some of my biking brethren are in the habit of removing their brakes, throwing off their helmets, breezing through all sorts of traffic signals and only stopping when their skin-tight jeans begin to chafe. But this remains a minority of cyclers and typically not in the ranks of those who commute by bike on a daily basis. Others of us, however, come to rolling, and sometimes even complete stops, at stop signs and pay full attention to pedestrians and drivers. The favor, however, is not always returned in kind.
On a recent trip to my office on the opposite side of campus, I decided to traverse along the main thoroughfare, 13th Avenue. To my behest, almost solid blocks of pedestrians were walking down 13th, not being mindful of the multitude of accidents and losses in efficiency happening on all sides of them.
You may retort, “but there is construction that closed down the north sidewalk on 13th Avenue. Do you honestly expect me to cavort with that south-sidewalk riff-raff?” This one may be a hard one to get over, but yes, I do. Somewhere along your four years here you are expected to learn how to interact with the people around you in an accommodating and mutually beneficial way So I say embrace your fellow pedestrians. There’s nothing mutually beneficial about people getting injured and being late to class because they get hit by a cyclist. Everybody loses.
“So this problem will go away when the construction ends on campus?” The construction never ends, firstly. But more importantly, the disregard for bikers’ space is much more pervasive.
Throughout Eugene, pedestrians seem to think that bike lanes are equivalent to sidewalks. They step into them without looking for bikes and walk down the middle of them with complete disregard for people maniacally yelling, “on your left!” behind them.
Going into a bike lane is like going into the street; look both ways and be wary of keeping the whole lane going three miles per hour.
Michael Weinerman
University graduate student