Bikers aren’t the issue, safety is up to all of us
Bikers often face distracted pedestrians, frequent thefts and a lack of infrastructure.
By KATE MCQUARRIE
I know it’s a controversial statement around here, but I am a proud biker. Since moving off campus my junior year, my bike has become my savior when it comes to my 1-mile commute and getting to class on time when I’m running late. While people have some valid complaints about bikes on campus, I’d like to dispel some myths and air my own complaints.
One thing I hear all the time is the annoyance at bikers for having close calls or collisions with folks walking around, skating or scootering. This is certainly an issue — I have had a few of these myself. When I’m running late, I try to skirt between people or go too fast, but I also always apologize when this occurs and have learned over time to avoid those situations.
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But the onus isn’t just on bikers: People need to stop staring at their phones when walking. Paying attention to your surroundings in public spaces is a simple show of respect that can help us all avoid any unwanted collisions.
Speaking of unwanted collisions, I would assert that the biggest threats are not bikers, but rather electric scooter riders. E-scooters often move much faster than bikes, limiting their ability to change course if there is an impending collision, and make walking around campus feel like avoiding “The Flash” zipping by.
One solution might be for bikes, scooters and even skateboards to use the designated bike lanes on campus. The problem is, no one respects the boundaries of those lanes. People constantly walk in and out of the bike lane, making its existence irrelevant, not to mention the lack of dedicated bike lanes in most campus spaces; the only one I can name is on Trousdale Parkway.
Now, we have arrived at one of my biggest complaints: there are simply not enough bike racks in heavily trafficked campus areas — and some have none at all nearby. Most times, when I head to the Student Union for the Daily Trojan or to Sample Hall for Undergraduate Student Government during the day, the bike racks outside STU are full.
I have had to chain my bike to nearby poles and trees, and frequently see others do the same across campus. Tutor Campus Center, one of the busiest places on campus, lacks easily accessible bike racks entirely. The nearest racks are the aforementioned and chronically busy rack at STU, racks on the far side of the USC Bookstore or behind Sample Hall across the street.
The situation only worsens when the Department of Public Safety removes bike racks in heavily trafficked areas for events, forcing students to resort to locking their bikes to trees, poles or anything else they can find. It may seem like a minor inconvenience, but it happens so often that it makes me want to tear my hair out — and USC offers no alternative spaces for bikers to use on those occasions.
Locks and wheels litter the bike racks around campus from thefts. (Jordan Renville / Daily Trojan)
And now for the elephant in the room: bike thefts. Each time I park and lock my bike — through both the front wheel and the frame, as is best practice — I see cut or unattached bike locks left behind after thefts. Walk around campus and take a closer look at the racks: They are teeming with orphaned locks, each of which represents a student whose bike or scooter was stolen.
In fact, a 2022 report from Crosstown LA found that University Park saw the most bike thefts of any area in the city during the school year between 2015 and 2022. This number amounted to 2,062 bikes reported stolen — and underreporting is a chronic issue, so this estimate is likely low.
We constantly have vehicles and officers from DPS, campus security ambassadors and community service officers on bikes patrolling our campus and yet, somehow, bikes are frequently stolen under their watch.
They do ask students to register those bikes with the University and encourage the proper use of U-locks to help mitigate the issue, but with so many security cameras on campus capable of monitoring bike racks, I wonder how so many bikes and scooters go missing.
I recently saw a video on the Instagram account @barstoolusc captioned, “Does DPS even exist?” showing someone in the process of stealing a scooter, while people stood by and watched and even filmed the encounter. For many students who cannot afford to live close to campus, bikes are their mode of transportation — and they are a financial investment. Thefts are not something to be mocked or laughed at; they have a real impact on students’ lives.
In February, my bike was stolen from my home off campus. It was locked properly and within the locked gate of my property, and yet one day I woke up and it was gone — and I was very late to class. My bike was registered with DPS and the department was able to report it stolen, but other than that — and expressing its sympathy for my situation — there was little it could do.
Bike thefts are common across campuses and cities alike, but as such a prevalent problem on campus, there is more USC can be doing to mitigate campus thefts. We have those security cameras for a reason, and the multitude of officers around campus could monitor for broken or abandoned locks and review security footage to determine if and when thefts occur. Their top-of-the-line facial recognition technology can also help determine the bike owner who parked there and the identity of the thief.
And for everyone walking in the sea of bikes, scooters and skateboards, pay a little more attention to your surroundings before you complain about us. To my fellow bikers: It is still up to us to respect the pace and physical boundaries of those with whom we share the road.
