Elon By Bike
By Don Granese
Part of Haggard will be expanded, providing more room for bikers.
While some people take in the autumn sights and sounds Elon’s campus has to offer by foot, others choose to make their way from building to building by bike. This alternative form of transportation has some drawbacks though.
“One of the reasons why I really can’t get into town on my bike is because the street is really dangerous,” Andrew Riley said. Riley is a student who depends on riding his bike to get himself from place to place.
According to Brad Wall of the North Carolina Department of Transportation in an email to Phoenix 14, a plan has been proposed that will be “a resurfacing project that includes 2-foot paved shoulders on W. Front Street.”
The resurfacing would expand the road to make it even wider, giving drivers and bikers more room to travel. This project is just one example of how the area is becoming biker friendly. There are still other projects in the process of being planned and designed.
“This project at this point is being developed,” Wall said. “I anticipate it being included in our Alamance County resurfacing for next year.”
The expansion could not come any sooner for Riley.
“Last week I almost got in a wreck,” Riley said. “It was raining and I was riding. I had to get somewhere. It’s just a bad situation with roads being so narrow”
While the expansion of the road would benefit students like Riley, students who stay off the roads and on the brick pathways of campus have a different kind of complaint.
“So many of the bike racks are overflowing with too many bikes” student biker Daniel Baquet said. “There’s definitely enough of a demand for people riding bikes that more bike racks are definitely necessary for the campus.”
Many Elon students would like to see more bike racks on campus.
After multiple interviews, Phoenix 14 informed Elon Provost Steven House of the responses from student bikers who wanted to see more bike parking near buildings.
He informed us via an email reply that he did some “investigative reporting” of his own while walking across campus by checking out some of the bike racks. He explained that they “were only 50% full and several had only one or two bikes, and one rack was completely empty.”
“If a strong case can be made by demonstrating that an area is always full, then we would agree to address this need,” he wrote. “Of course, the decision would be made on the basis of a demonstrated need and not just convenience.”
Whether or not more racks are needed seems to be a subject in which House and some bikers will have to work to find compromise. One thing that they can agree on is that biking is a popular way for students to get around. It’s an alternative form of travel that will be accommodated when necessary.
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October 31, 2011 at 12:56 am
very interesting