I have two friends who have been hit by cars while riding their bikes on campus. I would really like to end the article there and leave people to ponder that. It is, I think, all that really needs to be said. I encourage you to stop reading now and just review the first sentence. Still with me? Alright then. Neither of the people involved in these two accidents was seriously injured.
In the first incident, my friend Stephen was biking in front of Griffis Hall. A truck came out of the parking lot and knocked him off his bike. The two passengers of the truck sped off laughing as Stephen picked himself up off the ground.
In the second incident, my friend Richard was riding his bike near Rice Hall and a small car inadvertently slammed into him from the side. This accident was a little more serious. Richard rolled off the bike, over the hood, and collided with the windshield of the car, crushing the glass into a splintered hemisphere. The passengers in the car were physically fine; why wouldn’t they be?
Richard, however, while not seriously injured, is now taking prescription painkillers for his back.
I do not normally ride my bike in Starkville. I tried it a few times in the beginning of the semester but I gave up on it because I was constantly having to accommodate foot and motor traffic.
I suppose it would be a good transportation decision if I decided to ignore pedestrians and plow through crowds of people on foot, but since I avoided running people over while biking to class, it just didn’t seem worth it.
This is apparently the problem. You’re technically not even supposed to ride a bike on a sidewalk because of pedestrian safety; rather, you’re told to use the road. So while Mississippi State University cyclists are encouraged to use the roads like any other vehicle, the amount and attitude of motor traffic on campus and in Starkville is really daunting.
Your average motorist does not really allow as much courtesy for people on bikes as they do for other cars to the point that it is actually fairly dangerous for anyone on a bike.
The alternative is, of course, to bike on the sidewalks and pedestrian walkways. However, this is almost as dangerous, but this time because of the threat the cyclist poses to people on foot.
This is a complaint that I’ve heard many times before, and there have been times in which I’ve narrowly missed a collision with an errant cyclist myself. This issue leaves those people who choose to ride bikes on campus with little recourse. Do they ride on the roads and risk their own safety? Or do they ride on the sidewalks and risk others’ safety?
Considering this issue, I find it odd that Mississippi State has put so much enthusiastic support out for the campus bikes. Looking at the campus conditions for biking, this is not a good town or a good campus for cyclists.
It may seem to be a good idea that the school is encouraging bike use, but it still leaves a question unanswered: where are those bikes going to be ridden? Bike lanes exist in many places, but they are very rarely in the places that the bikers have to get to on a regular basis.
A practitioner at the student health center said that he sees a multitude of bike related injuries come in, and about half of them are cyclists getting hit by cars.
I chose to stick to being a pedestrian some time ago, so I can’t say that the issue discussed here really applies to me.
However, I can understand where the bike people are coming from with these complaints, especially since the safety of everyone involved is a legitimate concern.
Zack Bouis is a junior majoring in psychology. He can be contacted at [email protected].