A new approach to parking bikes

I happened to be on campus last weekend and read the article in the Oct. 3 edition of The Argus with the headline “Bike policy enforced” (Volume CXLIV, Number 10) with some interest.

As a Wesleyan alumnus who joined the Board of the Connecticut Bicycle Coalition when it met monthly at the Middletown Firehouse back in the 70s, and later served a term as the organization’s president, I see a clear solution to the problem of illegally parked bikes, as follows:

1. Post signs on or near handrails and other places where bikes shouldn’t be locked indicating that illegally parked bikes will be confiscated and can be picked up at Physical Plant Offices on Long Lane (adding a telephone number and pointing to the location of the nearest racks as well as alternate places to lock bikes like sign-posts would be helpful).

2. Install as many bike racks as needed to meet demand, and demand can easily be quantified through careful observation (e.g. with a study).

Despite the 3.9 percent drop in Wesleyan’s endowment, which was noted in an adjoining article (“Endowment shrinks by 3.9 percent,” Oct. 3, 2008, Volume CXLIV, Number 10), the University can afford to purchase bike racks in sufficient quantities to be placed in front of most, if not all, buildings beginning with the most highly trafficked locations.

Bicycle transportation should be encouraged and facilitated, not discouraged, by University officials. At $0.00 per gallon (so to speak), cyclists mitigate traffic and parking congestion, introduce no greenhouse gases and get some exercise to boot (which, if not too strenuous, might actually help them to stay alert during the day).

Students, staff and faculty should all be encouraged to bike to work and school, and should get involved in Middletown’s Bike-to-Work-and-School Days organized by Transportation Alternatives Middletown (transaltmiddletown.org/biketowork.htm).

This being said, it is the responsibility of every cyclist to look for the nearest rack or signpost and never to lock their bike to a handrail which may be needed by someone traveling in a wheelchair or someone who needs to lean against the rail to keep steady.

To borrow a line from an Irish blessing that I find most appropriate for cyclists, “May the road rise up to meet you, and may the wind be always at your back!”