We've all done it: driving down the street, everything is going fantastically, you're thinking about that bacon sandwich you want to make when you get home and then BAM. It happens. You slam on the brakes and throw an exasperated hand up in the air at the poor sweaty soul riding their bike in front of you. Without risking injury to the person riding their bike or the traffic coming in the other direction, there's no physical way to pass them. Choice words are considered.
The conundrum created between a fear for personal safety and the economic and physical need to use a bike as a mode of transportation for many people is definitely not the first thing considered when you are trailing behind a bicyclist in your car.
At the mercy of the roads, bicyclists have to constantly maneuver and swerve around basically everything: people, parked cars, trash, manhole covers and - my personal favorite - gravel. The risk they take in sharing the streets with cars, trucks and semis is substantial. Even in a small town like Oxford, accidents happen. Considering that on the first day of classes this semester, a student biking on Patterson Avenue was hit by a car, it would not be surprising if less people started biking around campus.
While biking is more efficient than walking, it seems to be safer to travel in a pack of first-year pedestrians than to tempt gravity by getting on a bike. The perennial zoo that is Spring Street during any academic week at Miami University is a constant intricate web of tan feet and flip flops streaming across the pavement, culminating in the nightmarish intersection of Patterson, Spring Street and Route 73. The concentration of traffic between class changes is exemplified by the numerous individuals who blindly cross the street or ignorantly choose to stroll in front of traffic (another offense of which we're all guilty at one point or another).
As pedestrians, we seem to feel that since we have to walk everywhere by our own energy, we have the right of way in every occasion. This is our campus, and we have to get where we need to go on schedule. Waiting for a tractor-trailer to mosey its way down the street is a waste of time and, quite simply, not on our list of priorities.
In a place where public transportation is limited to buses and the sidewalk, in many cases it is faster to walk to where you need to go. But who has the right to use the streets? Clearly pedestrians own the right of way when they run across the road, much to the chagrin of passing drivers, but bicyclists face a unique challenge. They are small enough to be unable to compete with cars for ownership of the road individually but fast enough to be rendered useless by the congestion of pedestrian sidewalk traffic. Bikes clearly demand their own space.
As economically unfeasible it may be at this point to install bike lanes in the roads around Oxford, the safety of students as well as drivers is an important factor to consider in the long run. Moving towards a more sustainable society means using less carbon-dependent means of transportation, in which bikes play a significant role. Personal convenience is definitely a priority in American society, and few people want to give up the luxury that their car affords them. However, supporting the brave individuals who choose to rely on their bicycles instead of a gas powered vehicle is an important step to take to promote more earth-conscious attitudes. And as slow as bicyclists may pedal up the hills of Oxford, society is changing just as slowly in turn.
Amy Biolchini biolchal@muohio.edu
