Letter to the editor
Posted November 10, 2010 at 8:46 pm in Opinion
Bike controversies still need a voice
To USC officials:
To be truthful, I have appreciated your attitude and actions toward the student body since I enrolled in USC in the fall of 2007. I believe that you actually have the opinions of the student body in the forefront of your reasoning, and as such I hope that you take what I say into serious consideration.
I agree with the vast majority of your bike policies. Because of my job on campus, I have a clear knowledge of how student body traffic patterns work, and I think that it makes absolute sense to suspend wheel-based traffic through the center of campus.
However, your policies on the necessity of parking bikes in bike racks is not reasonable because of the fact that there are simply not enough bike racks to accommodate the number of bicycles used on campus. The number of bikes has increased as the number of students living on or near campus has increased, yet the number of bike racks has not risen accordingly.
I believe that one of the most beautiful parts of USC is it’s residential nature. It allows students from around the world to come to Los Angeles to have their college experience, and is at the heart of our ascent through the college rankings.
When you couple our residential nature with our campus’ unique flatness, our university creates an environment in which bikes will undoubtedly be present.
As such, we cannot enforce stringent laws on parking bicycles in designated racks, when it’s simply impossible for the students to abide by said rule. I feel that if the number of racks were to equal the number of bikes, you position would not only be understood, but appreciated by the student body.
I love USC, and I know that this issue will ultimately be quite minor in the well-being of the university.
But I also feel that enforcing a policy that is actually impossible to abide by is at its root unfair, and as such I believe I should exercise my right to voice my opinion.
I appreciate your time,
Christian Edwards
Senior, public relations
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I think this bike issue is pretty critical and however it needs to be handled, it should be done. As one of the few students without a bike, I’ve been hit multiple times; and in some instances given an apology and in others ignored. I don’t think that the bikes themselves are the problem, the obvious problem are the students who try to do too much while riding their bikes (drinking coffee, talking/texting on the phone, trying to hold a conversation with a another student that is walking, or the real kicker: stopping wherever they are to do whatever they please without regard to anyone else.) Surely this is a cultural ethical issue, because if you remove the bikes, these issues still pose a problem and are considerable rude; the texting pedestrian is just as cumbersome being ferried on two wheels (and in my opinion a bit worse), the student yelling on their phone whilst ignoring their physical counterparts is annoying, the people doing too much while walking (reading a book is by far the worst thing that I’ve seen)…you get the point. And although I acknowledge that students doing these activities on two wheels are more perilous due to the collision factor, I honestly believe them to be tantamount to those who are just as rude on two legs.
So in short, sanctioning the bikes will do nothing to stop the real issue: rude, selfish students. Meaning those that are, everyone who rides a bike doesn’t inherently fit this category. The real issue is getting people to understand what’s acceptable and what isn’t. But I’m a pragmatist, and highly doubt anything will be done about this…