|
Our
campus is a death trap for bicyclists
Ruinous
• A pothole across from Brotman Hall
lurks near a stop sign, waiting to swallow
up inattentive bikers. Yulian Danusastro
/ Daily Forty-Niner
Cal
State Long Beach is the antithesis of bike-loving
UC Davis and USC. President Robert C. Maxson
and the good folks at Facilities Management
should leave their cars at home and come
to school on two wheels. Maybe then they'd
realize that this campus is an outreach
project of the ninth circle of bike hell.
The
city of Long Beach obviously hates bicyclists.
Very few bike lanes, multiple potholes,
small sidewalks and parallel parking combine
to make any LBC bike cruise an extended
flirt with death.
Anybody
who has come down Atherton from the student
apartments has dealt with the rocks strewn
across the road, the minefield of potholes
and the lunatic drivers.
CSULB
isn't much better. The first thing
the campus needs to fix is the West Turnaround
punji pit, also known as the "Big
Damn Pothole By The Bus Stop." Every
so often, Facilities Management attempts
to pour asphalt into the gaping holes there.
It didn't work last time, and it's
not working this time. They need to tear
the whole corner up and start from scratch.
Like
some low-budget Temple of Doom, the split
cement blocks shift and drop as you try
to escape them. Whenever a bus drives over
the slabs, they lift and shimmy. Cars thump
along, swaying as their suspension systems
try to smooth the ride. Bikes are doomed
to painful shocks and hard knocks when they
cross into that uncharted territory.
Another
example of the secret anti-bike agenda is
the size of campus streets. God forbid you
try to abide by the California Vehicle Code,
suffer the potholes and stay on the streets.
Narrow
streets and the absence of bike lanes make
it impossible to share the road. And before
any ideas of taking a whole lane are bandied
about, note the surly faces behind the steering
wheels.
Johnny
Latetoclass isn't interested in sitting
behind you while you shift gears and brake
completely at every stop sign. Should Bikey
McPedalson play the dodge ‘em and
run game, Long Beach State's finest
will be right behind him. Having no exciting
crime to deal with, our ever-vigilant cops
will happily give you a ticket for running
stop signs.
Avoid
potholes by going on the sidewalk, eh? Nice
thought, but this campus has over 35,000
students. They'll all be in front
of you the minute you move off the streets.
The mountain bike crowd has some opportunity
to ride on the grass, but anybody on a road
bike is taking a risk. After all, they call
it a road bike for a reason.
The
concept of inner-campus bike lanes also
escaped the campus engineers. Moving around
in front of the science or liberal arts
buildings is no easy ride. It's more
like playing a deviant version of dodgeball,
from the ball's point of view. Spreading
out as far as the eye can see is an explosion
of people who aren't really expecting
something on two wheels.
The
foot traffic never learned to deal with
shared space. Bicyclists know full well
what to do when somebody shouts "on
your left." But many pedestrians have
no idea.
"On
your left" means a bike is coming
up from behind you, on your left side. A
generally acceptable response is to move
to the right. Flinching, staying put, moving
to the left or curling up into a ball are
unhelpful at best.
There's
no easy fix to this problem. Bike lanes
on the streets would be great. "Wheels
Only" paths on the campus would be
excellent.
Griping
is nice, but showing is better. President
Maxson and the administrators in Facilities
Management should see this problem from
the front lines and try riding bikes around
campus.
We'll
even let them borrow ours.
|
