Editor:

Apparently Liz Carlston hasn’t ridden a bike around campus lately. If she had, she would have acknowledged in her column (“Campus bike lanes a waste of U funds” Nov. 6) that the new campus bike lanes are overdue. She would know that even when biking at a mild pace you are constantly having to suddenly apply your brakes as an unknowing pedestrian steps into your chosen path.

The new bike lanes will help establish separate zones for cyclists and pedestrians, greatly reducing the potential for bike-pedestrian accidents.

First of all, $3,500 for the lanes to be established is a small price to pay when you consider that a couple of broken bones due to an accident could easily cost as much. Liz’s alternative to the bike lanes, “a campus police watchdog system,” did not come with a specified cost. I can guarantee hiring people to police the sidewalks will cost more than paint, not to mention it does nothing to eliminate the problem of bikes and pedestrians all on the same crowded walkways.

Second, I’m sure the process of planning where the bike lanes would be established was based a lot more on common sense than just the “ad hoc” study mentioned in her article. True, there may be a learning curve as both pedestrians and bicyclists are educated on the proper use of the lanes, but something has to be done. There have been too many close calls and accidents already.

Jacob Morrill,
Junior, Biomedical Engineering