STUDENT BIKERS NEED SAFETY ADVICE
Attention Student Bikers:
This is you: Biking with no helmet, messenger bag slung over one shoulder, pedaling fast in your flip-flops down the sidewalk along Dalrymple.
This is me heading north on Highland Road: I've got the light. I've got the right of way.
You see me coming and pedal faster for the crosswalk, weaving your way through pedestrians. I can see you've got your tunes on.
When I pass St. Alban's doing 25 miles per hour, you gauge the distance between us and leap into the street.
I'm forced to stop in the middle of the intersection or else slam you broadside.
Fortunately for you, I'm also on a bike. I just brake and let you pass.
But had I been in my truck, with my own iPod blaring and thoughts of a Chimes club sandwich on my mind, you might be dead right now.
Here's the deal. I don't want to kill you. I want you to graduate and grow into a crusty old person like myself. I want you to take my job when I retire.
For the past three years, I've biked to campus almost every day.
Why? I hate to pay for gasoline, I'm too lazy to hit the gym and like many of you, I have a social conscience. I think it's possible to do a little good by leaving the car at home and pedaling my four-mile commute.
Obviously you do too, and I applaud you. Every student who bikes to campus makes everyone who drives think twice. Could I do that? Hey, why not? And that's a good thing.
But if you want to keep setting a good example for others, you can't afford to let some driver kill you.
Here's the secret to staying alive: Be visible and drive like a car.
That's it. That's the big secret of bike safety. If you can bother yourself to put some lights and reflectors on your bike and your body, drivers will see you coming. And if you follow the law and act like a car - using the right lane of the road, making turn signals, and obeying stop signs - then drivers will respect you. You'll be alive when the next edition of GTA hits CompUSA.
The helmet issue I leave up to you. You're big boys and girls. Use your heads.
Matt Mullenix Office of Research & Economic Development
