After a bike tire blowout left a student with a broken leg last week, the U Bicycle Collective said it is gearing up to provide students and faculty around campus with information about bicycle safety.
Every Monday and Wednesday from 10:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. on the Union Plaza the collective offers basic maintenance instruction and the necessary tools for students to ensure their bike’s are in rideable condition. In addition, the collective serves to provide students with tips they need to become safe and street-smart commuters.
In the past month, the U has seen a series of bicycle-related accidents across campus. Justin Faust, a senior in computer science, broke his leg when the front tire of his bike blew out between the Union and the University Campus Store on Sept. 17 and an unidentified biker collided with a UTA TRAX train as it was approaching the South Campus TRAX stop on Aug. 29.
“We’d like to provide safety classes to teach students practical skills for defensive riding, and as soon as we see more of a demand we could do that,” said Jon Wilkey, co-director of the collective.
The U’s policy for operating bicycles on campus states that no person riding a bike shall exceed a speed greater than 10 mph and shall yield the right-of-way to pedestrians at all times and exercise due care to prevent injuries to themselves and others.
“Cycling’s not an all-or-nothing proposition,” Wilkey said. “People sometimes hesitate because they see it that way, but you don’t have to ride your bike everyday. Take public transportation uphill and ride your bike down.”
The cost advantages of biking to campus are obvious, Wilkey said. If people are not driving their cars, they’re not using gasoline, he said. Wilkey also highlighted the health benefits to biking because riders incorporate exercise into daily life.
“Just give biking a shot, and it grows on you,” Wilkey said.
The collective also advocates advantages of biking.
“Fitness is the selfish reason for riding my bike everyday,” said Jill James, a second year graduate student in social work. “Secondly, the environment. It drives me nuts when students who could ride a bike or take public transportation don’t.”
James said that she and her husband both make a 6-mile daily commute to the U from their home and back.
With a similar mission and loosely connected ties to the U’s collective, the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective offers similar bicycle educational programming for Salt Lake City residents.
The Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective offers weekly courses that focus on educating bikers to become street ready. With an emphasis in mechanics, traveling on the street with cars and avoiding crashes, these courses teach students how to ride legally and safely. The certified League Cycling Instructors teach the courses, which are free to the public.
“We teach what it takes to be safe on your bike. If your bike’s not safe, then you’re not safe, so we focus on mechanics and also how to safely operate your bike in traffic,” said Jonathan Morrison, projects coordinator for the group. “We want to teach people to operate their bike like a car, predictably, so car drivers know how a bicyclist will react and how to react to the bicyclist.”
Cameron StricklandJon Wilkey, a junior studying Chemical Engineering, shows how to install an LED Light on a bicycle in a meeting of the U of U Bike Collective.