Strikes Against Bikes

Last fall, a group of 50 bicyclists rallied in Boston's Waterfront Park to protest the exclusion of bicycles from the local subway system.

The so-called "T Party" included a race across. Boston Harbor, where participants either rode their bikes, took the cycles in a canoe, or (by special dispensation) traveled with their bikes on the subway to the opposite shore. Although the event was supposed to publicize the need for cyclists to have access to the subway, the canoe proved the fastest way across the harbor.

"I go into withdrawl if I'm not with my bike," said Deborah L. Kern '86 at the rally in October. Another participant said cyclists have been "very rudely treated by the MBIA" Their protest represented one of many problems local cyclists encounter each day, Although bicycle racks are a common sight across campus, students cannot ride their bikes in the Yard. Thefts remain a problem. And the congested Cambridge traffic always naakes riding dangerous.

For off-campus students and residents of Quad and distant River Houses, cycling forms an integral part of each day. "A bike is definitely a Quad necessity," says one Cabot House resident. "I couldn't get around without it. It's too far to walk everywhere and the shuttle takes too long."

Despite its usefulness, riding a bicycle in Cambridge poses a number of dangers. "Its a real life illustration of Darwinism--survival of the fittest on the streets of Cambridge," comments another Quad resident.

"Cars in the Square have no respect for bikes. They just figure you'll get out of their way." He adds, "Cars have no respect for you, so I have no respect for cars."

Sgt. John E. McCarthy, traffic supervisor for the Cambridge Police Department, agrees that bicycles and automobiles often seem locked in a constant battle over the streets.

"Bikers and drivers just are unable to communicate with each other, and this creates a lot of personal animosity between them," he says.

Andrew W. Ward '79, member and former captain of the Harvard Cycling Team, says, "Massachussetts drivers and Boston drivers in particular make it difficult to ride. In short, they just don't obey many of the road rules."

Ward recognizes that most cyclists also disobey traffic rules. "A lot of them are just inviting accident. For the most part, they tend to run red lights and ride down one-way streets the wrong way," he says, adding that drivers' legitimate expectations for cyclists to "pull some ridiculous stunt" further compounds the problem. "They'll tend to either give you a wide berth, speed up past you or just honk their horns," he says.

McCarthy believes that most student cyclists, under the pressure of time, often tend to overlook the rules and regulations governing bike riding.

The attitude of one Currier House commuter seems to support this. While she recognizes certain dangers in haphazard riding, she says, "When you're late to class, you pick the shortest way to get there and that's the way you go."

"I realize that they [students] need to get from class to class in a hurry," McCarthy notes, "but I can't stress enough the need to use absolute caution and obey the traffic rules at all times because there is definite danger involved."

Former State Sen. William L. Saltonstall '49, who largely wrote the current cycling statutes 11 years ago, says, "At the time, the state laws were very vague about the rights of cyclists to be on the road... The goal of the statute was to make clear that they had definite rights but also definite responsibilities."

The law require cyclists to equip bicycles with brakes, reflector, and either a bell or horn, register them with the local police department, and follow the same traffic rules governing vehicles, including signaling and obeying all lights and signs.

Just as a certain animosity exists between drivers of cars and cyclists over control of the roads, a similar inherent tension arises between pedestrians and bikers over the use of sidewalks and paths.

Jack Morse, deputy chief of the Harvard Police Department, says keeping cyclists from riding in heavily used pedestrian areas poses a constant problem. "I don't think anyone wants to hurt anyone," Morse says. "Bikers have great faith in their ability to avoid a pedestrian but no matter what, riding at high speeds offers a constant danger to people walking."

Morse says that while administrative rules prohibit riding on any Harvard properly which is specifically designated for foot traffic, the main concern over bicycle traffic centers around the Yard.

One frequent Yard walker notes that "I'm all for bike riding, but I'd just like to drop kick the bikers who ride through the Yard."

He adds, "Most bikers are pretty conscientious, but it's an isolated few who make life difficult lot everyone."

Morse says the guard at Johnston Gate, and other police throughout the Yard, constantly stop students and ask them to walk their bikes.

"There is no clearly defined punishment but we take it very seriously," he says, but Dean of the College John B. Fox Jr. '59 says, "I would be awfully reluctant to get into the business of using the administrative board to persuade people merely to use common sense."

"The problems of bicycle rider are continuing ones, this is not a new situation." For continues, noting that unlike many other universities, the bulk of student cycliny occurs not on Harvard property, but on public streets.

"This would seem a smaller continuous people were free to use bicycle's counyemcutly and safely all the time, but its just not simple," he adds.

Aside from providing lock and store bicycles, boy say the administration continues to look into ways of facilitating bicycle use.

Last spring a subcommittee of the Committee on Housing began investigating creation of a bike path between Mather and the Quad, via the Yard.

Arline G. Heimeil, co master of I hot House and a member of this committee, says little progress has been made on the project due to questions of cost, student interest and jurisdiction problems with the City of Cambridge.

Despite the plethora of cycling problems injuries are uncommon. Dr. Dr. Watten Wacker, director of University Health Services (UHS), says. "For the number of people riding bikes, the number of bike related in juries is surprisingly, and lountrately low."

According to the UHS Environmental Health and Safety Office, 89 bike related injuries were treated during the last school year, a slight increase from 82 the previous year.

Raymond L. White, senior safety engineer, says most accidents involve automobile cutting off cyclists at corners, opening door in front of them, or hitting a cyclist suddenly emerging from an unexpected place, such as a one-way street or a red light.

He says relatively few reported accidents concerned pedestrians and cyclists.

Saltonstall, author of the traffic laws, adds that the statutes grant cyclist two privileges which most vehicles do not have permission to pass on the right cars which are stopped at a red light, and to ride on sidewalks in areas not zoned as business district although this does not allow one to ride on sidewalks in areas not zoned as business district although this does not allow one to ride on sidewalks in a congested area like the Square.

Otherwise, the cycling laws remain somewhat vague and often go unendorsed.

In accidents involving cyclists and pedestrians, Saltonstall says the cases often end up in lawsuits because they are not covered by most insurance policies.

"Many police departments don't enforce, the laws against cyclists because they say they have more serious things to do," Saltonstall says, adding "I don't know what can be more serious than keeping people from being killed."

"A lot of times I'll pass a cop going down a one-way street the wrong way and he won't even look twice," says one frequent cyclist.

McCarthy says, "We're not interested in punishing bikers. We just want to keep people safe."

"I'm asking for cooperation, a team effort to save lives," he says. "I don't want to be melodramatic, but there's nothing more pitiful than seeing someone's brains spreadout out under a truck just for not thinking just for being stupid."