University Star

On Monday, ASG brought forth a bill that sought to amend changes to bicycle policies supported by the Parking and Transportation Committee.

In a remarkable shift from the actions of previous governments, ASG stood up for the student body and proposed mostly sensible amendments to the draconian changes put forth by the Parking and Transportation Committee.

I understand the genuine safety issues for those people in a wheelchair or on crutches. Just as you cannot account for those people who drive recklessly on the roads, all cyclists cannot be held responsible for the actions of some dumbass on a bike. Many of the handicap ramps are impossibly narrow and I’ve witnessed people in wheelchairs having trouble navigating them. The mirrors placed in the corners of handicap ramps are long overdue and will do a lot to increase safety on the ramps. Lastly, according to Vice President Colter Ray and debate during Monday’s meeting, these changes weren’t proposed in direct response to a handicap person’s complaints.

I wish the changes ended there. The committee proposed a plethora of fees. None were higher than $15, but if cyclists parked their unregistered bicycle ($10) in an area not designated for bicycles ($10), it could get impounded ($10).

ASG’s version did not include the fines associated with “riding through a dismount zone,” “bicycle impound fee,” “unregistered bicycle” or “roller-skating, skateboarding or operating a scooter on campus.” However, they did vote to impose a new fee for reckless cycling ($15) instead of banning bicycles from ramps. They didn’t propose a fee for reckless walking though.

The Parking and Transportation Committee is also seeking to “ban skateboards, roller-skates and scooters on any university property.” Which begs the question … college students ride scooters? Furthermore, and most egregious to me, they want to ban bicycles and pedestrians from using the handicap ramps.

This is heinous for several reasons. First, the university is more than just grounds for academia. Campus represents a place where academics live, work, study and play. Cyclists, skateboarders and scooter ...errs (?) are exercising not only their bodies, but their rights to enjoy activities such as these on a campus they paid for twice (through tuition and taxes).

Furthermore, to ban pedestrians and bicycles from the ramps would be unenforceable. Ramps are all around campus and UPD simply cannot monitor all of them. (Smoking ban anyone?)

Pedestrians, however, can walk up the stairs. To ban bicycles from using the handicap ramps would effectively ban bicycles from campus.

Support of these penalties (or outright bans) for bicycles flies in the face of community-wide support for cyclists. The City of San Marcos held a bicycle planning meeting in which Sabas Avila, assistant director of Public Services and Transportation voiced support for cycling as a viable means of transportation. Our common experience theme is sustainability, of which one entire day was devoted to transportation. But this lip service amounts to little in the way of actual accommodations for cyclists. Cycling around San Marcos sucks. Hills go on forever and are impossibly steep. The streets are marked with potholes. Bicycle lanes are as rare as courteous, humane drivers. And the students from highway cities like Houston, Dallas and San Antonio don’t understand the dynamics of small town commuting. Hint: slow down. 

With the cards stacked this heavily against cycling, it’s a miracle that anyone in San Marcos gets on a bicycle at all.

But we do, and in the process we refrain from polluting the river (roadway runoff is a primary contributor to river pollution), crowding the roadways and taking up a valuable ($20,000/space for Speck Street Garage) parking spots. Basically, we are solving the most prevalent and serious problems in San Marcos one revolution at a time. In the words of Mark Carter, senior lecturer in our nationally renowned geography department, “Bicycles are the solution, not the problem.”

— Daniel Palomo is a mass communication senior