At its meeting Tuesday, Associated Student Government (ASG) attempted to save curbside parking areas by opposing a bill that recommends including bike lanes on Spring Street.
Installing the bike lanes have already received approval from Parking Services at Miami University, and bike lanes were included in Oxford's 2008 Comprehensive Plan as part of a commitment to alternative forms of transportation.
The bill's author, junior off-campus senator Dori Bahir, thought it would be a good gesture to get the support of student senate to help expedite Oxford's plans to add bike lanes on Spring Street.
Bahir said the planned recommendation, designating one-way bike lanes on both sides of Spring Street from Patterson Avenue to the Tollgate Shopping Center, was based off past failed proposals to include bike lanes in several streets throughout Oxford.
However, installing the lanes would eliminate just less than 50 parking spaces on campus, and 45 parking spaces off campus, a loss that was unsettling to many ASG senators.
"I'm voting against this because it's taking away unpaid spaces and forcing people to pay to walk further away to park," senior senator Elizabeth Duval said.
Bahir pointed to the campus parking lots at Millett Hall and Ditmer, as well as new parking garages on Campus Avenue by the Recreational Sports Center and the North Campus Garage located underneath the School of Engineering on High Street as viable new options to park instead of Spring Street.
However, many senators felt this was an unacceptable loss, given how far away other parking options are and the cold weather in Oxford.
President Pro Tempore Brendan Buholzer, among others, worried that this bill would lead to more streets adding bike lanes, eliminating more spaces for the future.
"This will eliminate more parking spaces and lead to more one-way streets like Bishop Street and University (Ave.)," he said.
However, junior senator Nathan Zwayer accused senators opposed to the bill of obstructing the common good for students' personal convenience.
"I live 25 minutes away from campus and I make it to class on time," he said. "I walk or I take the bus, this (bill) is sacrificing a little bit of convenience for the greater good."
Senators who supported the bill also hinted at possible hypocrisy of senators who oppose the bill on the basis of eliminating convenient parking, as many of those senators also voted against a bill that would have recommended providing blue on-campus parking passes for resident assistants (RAs) Dec. 2, regardless of their class standing.
At the meeting, RAs said the work they do for residence halls require that they be able to park at their residence halls at all times, instead of walking to Ditmer, Millett or the on-campus parking garages.
Despite the fact that senators in favor of the bill argued that bike lanes would help promote a "greener" Oxford, others, like junior Matthew Sinko, thought bike lanes would do nothing to promote bike usage.
"How is this going to make anything greener?" he asked. "This is not going to reduce the number of cars here."
Several recent bills brought to ASG have dealt with parking, nearly all of them stirring long debate. However, Tuesday's debate was cut short as Bahir had to present the bill, approved or not, to Oxford's City Council by 7 p.m.
After an hour of debate, the bill was brought to a vote with several senators still on the debate session speakers' list. The Bike Lane Bill was defeated with 28 senators voting opposed, nine supporting and one abstention.
Afterwards, Bahir was distraught by what she thought was the saturation of opposed views on the speakers list that lopsided a debate capped after one hour. Many of the opposing views, she argued, were inaccurate when weighed against recent reports from Miami's Institute of Environmental Studies.
"Obviously these senators have not done their homework," Bahir said via e-mail. "When asked what would increase biking, 50 percent of students and non-students said they would ride if their were separate lanes, 80 percent of bicyclists said a designated bike lane would increase ridership, and 50 percent of non-bikers said the same. It's upsetting to me that this was the last argument made before a vote was taken. It's not biking in cold weather that can kill you, it's driving your car instead of walking a couple blocks."
After ASG denied the bill, Bahir attended the Oxford City Council meeting, where the council was reserved toward the specific bike lane proposition, but was willing to meet with Bahir and others to use what is readily available to make biking a more attractive commuting option.
Zwayer said he was disappointed in ASG's vote, seeing it as an unnecessary roadblock to a good measure for the community.
"Miami's making (new bike lanes) a main concern … Residence Hall Association (RHA) gave their support," he said. "Students have given their support already, sad to see Senate didn't do the same."
However, Sinko thought this was a bill that could only hinder commuters in Oxford.
"Given the right place, it would be a great idea," he said. "Oxford was not designed for the amount of cars we have now ... and (I) don't think (this bill) will bring more bikes."
