Learning to Dance in the Rain

Archive for October, 2005

This is a rant about BYU’s bike policy.

BYU has a list of rules posted all over campus about where and how bikes can ride and park.  Many of them are reasonable.  The really annoying one is that we can only park our bikes at installed bike racks.  There are too few of them, and they are not in the right places.  Depending on where you are on campus, you might have to park your bike 1-2 buildings away in order to get to where you are going because no bike rack is closer.  The worst thing though is that the racks that are there are too small.  During the school year, the bike rack between the Kimball Tower and the McKay building is so full that it is literally impossible to tie a bike up on the rack.  So what can you do besides park 3 buildings away?  I have tried tying my bike up to a nearby handrail or tree when no space was available on the bike rack.  I made sure it would not be in anyone’s way.  And I’ve gotten warnings stuck on my bike by the campus police telling me I could get a fine for doing this again.

Stupid.  This university already has a serious car parking problem.  They could alleviate much of it by providing enough bike racks to encourage more bicycles.  There have been many days where I took the bus just because I figured I could not compete for space at the bike racks.  It’s more friendly to the environment for me to take a bike.  BYU should encourage this behavior.