Event to address campus bike safety

The USG and Student Health Advisory Board will co-host a bike tune-up event on Friday afternoon, offering free repairs, giveaways, raffles and opportunities to learn about bike safety and security on campus.

In partnership with the USG and SHAB, representatives from the Department of Public Safety will be present to answer questions about safe biking practices and to help students register their bikes on-site through Transportation and Parking Services.

“The campus is incredibly not bike-able,” Rebecca Thorsness ’13, a SHAB member, said. “We want bikers to understand their responsibility to be safe.”

SHAB Chair Michael Kochis ’15 explained that a major goal of the event is to encourage safe biking on a campus that has a lot of rough paths, hills and stairs. Kochis said he was inspired to pursue the project after witnessing a bike accident in which a student was taken to the hospital.

In addition, SHAB members hope the event will teach students the basics of how to fix their bikes.

“It’s more than just wearing a helmet,” Kochis noted. “We realize that not everyone is gonna wear a helmet.”

The bike tune-up will also be an opportunity for DPS to partner with students to talk about campus safety and security initiatives. DPS will be selling and raffling off bike U-locks at the event in order to convey the importance of registering and locking bikes.

In fact, bike theft is one of the most commonly reported crime on campus. According to a review of DPS crime logs, 167 bicycles were reported stolen between Feb. 1, 2012, and Feb. 22, 2013. Most bikes were reported stolen during November and December, when 14 bikes were reported stolen each month, respectively.

Sixteen bikes were reported stolen from Forbes College, the top location for missing bikes, followed by Frist Campus Center with 11.

“Students are going to tell us what their concerns are, and it is much better when Public Safety is working with the community,” Executive Director of DPS Paul Ominsky said. “We are all about community caretaking.”

At least 200 students are anticipated to attend the bike tune-up, according to USG academics chair Dillon Sharp ’14, who was responsible for implementing the bike fix-it station outside McCosh Health Center and began planning the tune-up project during his term as a Class of 2014 Senator.

In the past, a shop by the Wawa used to host U-bikes, a student-run group that rented bikes, and Cyclab, a group of student volunteers that offered mechanical assistance for bikes. However, Thorsness explained that the two groups were “kicked out” for the impending construction of the University Arts and Transit Neighborhood.

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Cyclab is in the process of starting up again and plans to establish headquarters in Rockefeller College, on the corner of University Place and Nassau Street.

The bike tune-up will take place from 1-4 p.m. on Frist Campus Center’s South Lawn and will be sponsored by the USG, Frist Campus Center Programs and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students.