Category Archive

I’m sitting in class two weeks ago when one of my professors goes on a rant about bicyclists on campus. It came out of nowhere. “They’re so annoying,” the professor says. Then the rest of the students in the class, except yours truly, join in. “They always break the rules of the road. I’ve almost been hit by one.”

I hear similar comments from time to time from others, and as someone who has ridden a bike in the city for well over a year now, I can’t quite figure out why people hold such a disdain for bike riders. So here is my defense.

First of all, plain and simple, riding a bike is the easiest way of getting to and from class known to BU students, especially those living on West Campus or off campus. From my apartment, I can make it to COM in 10 minutes. And that’s on a bad day. If I hit all greens riding down Comm. Ave., shave three minutes off that time.

What other method of transportation will get you to class so quickly?

Walking? Not a shot. Twenty-two minutes in my most recent timing.

The T? That’s not happening, either. Let me remind you that the MBTA (the company that operates the T) is climbing its way out of the red, and at the current rate they should be operating with a surplus by the time your grandchildren graduate from BU. And the Cubs will have won a World Series by then. Workers are actually thinking about deliberately slowing down service. The bottom line, though, is that it will take at least 15 minutes on the train or bus, but it changes from day to day. You can never be certain when the train or bus will actually show up. It’s kind of like Manny Ramirez’s tenurewith the Red Sox. You literally did not know if he would show up and play sometimes, especially in his final days with the team in July before he was traded to the Dodgers. (Did I really just analogize Manny to the T? At least the T eventuallyshows up.) Plus, when the T does come, you have to pay $1.70 (with a Charlie Card, two bucks without). Or just sneak in the back doors because it’s too crowded to enter the front and the T driver is too busy texting to even care about collecting the fare.

The BU Shuttle? This is a nice alternative. And I mean nice in every sense of the word. It’s not great, not always reliable, but usually it comes through for you. Without taking into consideration the time it takes you to walk to the bus in front of Agganis Arena, the cleverly-named BUS (Boston University Shuttle=BUS) gets you to the main campus in about seven minutes. Then you have a minute or so walk to your class.

Car? Very few people drive to class. Waste of gas. Parking is next to impossible. Waste of money to pay for a parking spot wherever you live. Don’t do it.

Clearly the bike is the best way of getting to class. It takes the least amount of time, leaving you more time to sleep and read your free copy of the Boston Globe with breakfast (What? BU doesn’t provide the Globe for free anymore? I’m paying how much to go here?) Also, a bike is free once you have one. Why pay $200+ for a semester T pass when this alternative is available to you?

Besides the time and money factor, here are some other reasons why riding a bike is a good idea:

• Exercise. Sure, it’s only a brief ride, but for some people it’s more then they would get anyway. Roundtrip, it’s a 15-minute workout. This means you can walk to your favorite fast food joint to account for the remaining 15 minutes of the recommended daily exercise time.

• Environment. Biking is green, even if your bike is scarlet and white (BU’s official colors). No burning of fossil fuels. The only thing you’re burning are the calories from the omelet Nicole made you at West Campus Dining Hall.

Now let me address the “breaking the rules” and “hitting pedestrians” complaint. On the latter point–if you’re a pedestrian and you get hit by a bike, one of two explanations applies.

The first explanation is that you thought no cars were coming when the light was still green, and completely ignored the bike. That one’s your fault. The second explanation is that the person riding the bike was just stupid. That’s just life. There are stupid people everywhere; they are not restricted to bikes. People in cars are often stupid, and someone walking down the street has probably run into you at some point in your walking life (which I imagine is pretty long and started around the age of 1). If you were hit by a bike while walking on the sidewalk, then you have every right to be upset.

Regarding “breaking the rules” of the road, it’s something all bike riders are guilty of–and I don’t feel bad about it at all. If I’m at an intersection and my light is red, I look to see if cars are coming from another direction that would impede my forward progress. If all is clear, I don’t sit there obediently and wait for the light to turn green. I just go. Why not? For a non-bike rider, it’s easy to sit there and complain about how I break the rules of the road and should wait like the cars do. But, really, what’s the point of waiting? The cars are going to catch up to me anyway, and it’s safer for me to get a head start so that they can plan their maneuver around me ahead of time.

Rationalizing? Yes. So be it.

Bike riders on campus are not going anywhere. Except to class. Very quickly.