For the past year and a half that I’ve been walking the Tempe campus, I’ve seen my fair share of bike-pedestrian-skateboard collisions. Who hasn’t?
When it seems like over half of the student body uses some form of transportation other than walking, there are bound to be accidents. Sure, it makes walking to class interesting — watching accidents happen in anticipation and astonishment — since you never know if that bike is going to see that pedestrian when he turns that corner.
It’s when that anticipation turns into worry for your own well-being, and makes walking to class a giant mess of unconfident walkers, over-zealous bikers and entitled skateboarders.
Some of you may have seen new signs scattered around campus with the words “In a crowd … walk your bike or carry your skateboard.” Don’t worry if you haven’t, they’re easy to miss.
Next to the little piece of advice, there’s a website for students to visit, walk.asu.edu. The website basically goes over a couple of rules to follow. “If you are a bicyclist, skateboarder or use a scooter please dismount when you approach a crowd on campus. If you are a pedestrian, remain aware of those around you,” the website reads.
For those that follow these rules, you may be spotted by a “USG spotter” and given a prize entry card for the chance to win prizes ranging from pizza to an iPad.
My question is, when isn’t there a “crowd” on campus? During class changes, almost every mall and walk on campus is bustling with students trying to get to their next class, and bikes are still weaving through the crowds.
Rarely do I ever see a biker walking their bike. It seems unreasonable to ask bikers and skateboarders to walk — doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of owning “wheels?”
This is where bike lanes come into play. Bike lanes would allow those with wheels to have their own part of the sidewalk, and would allow them to easily ride their bikes during busy class changes.
Many schools enforce bike lanes, UA being one of them. UA psychology sophomore Franny Caputa describes the busy class-change as “relatively smooth.”
“People usually stick to the side designated for however they are getting around, but obviously there is some mixing,” she said.
UA enforces their bike lanes by having the campus police department patrol students as they move from class to class. If anyone is caught disobeying the rules, they get a warning or are written up, Caputa said.
If such a system works at UA, why not ASU? ASU has approximately 20,000 more students than UA, according to Collegeboard. This means more bikes and pedestrians; however, we lack a system to keep all the students organized between classes.
Political science sophomore and non-bike rider Megan Foutz is an advocate for the lanes. “I wouldn’t feel as stressed walking to class,” she said. Foutz, who has had her toes run over twice by skateboarders, only asks those with wheels to be “polite.” Currently, our only hope for order is these signs. I do not expect, or see, bikers walking their bikes and skateboarders carrying their skateboards.
If these signs are the final solution to the bike-pedestrian mayhem, I would ask campus officials and Undergraduate Student Government to skip out on taking university carts from point A to point B. Perhaps they could walk down Orange Mall at 11:35 a.m. and see what good their signs are doing.
Reach the columnist at obrunaci@asu.edu
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