Contrast exists between biking initiatives

Adding bike lanes to Waverly and Comstock avenues is a positive development for the community.

The Syracuse Common Council approved the addition of new bike lanes on Waverly and Comstock avenues, a project that will enhance safety for students who travel by foot and bicycle. The bike lane project is beneficial to the entire campus community, as it increases pedestrian safety by narrowing hazardously wide roads and supples a more secure place for cyclists to travel.

Beyond safety, the bike lanes also coincide with the university’s green initiatives. The lanes might encourage more to travel by bike, therefore reducing SU’s carbon footprint.

Student Association members are also attempting to make campus more beneficial for bikers, though not in conjunction with the bike lanes project. Ivan Rosales-Robles, chair of the Student Life Committee, said the organization is working with the administration to bring a bike repair station to campus for the fall semester.

The station would function in the form of a pole cemented to the ground, attached with the necessary tools to repair a bike.

Though this concept might benefit students who bike, it might not be an effective use of SA funding for the overall campus community.

A less costly way to aid cyclists might be to supply repair equipment at the main desks of the Schine Student Center and Archbold Gymnasium. Students could access the repair tools there, at two separate locations on campus, without the costs and planning of installing a station.

The repair station concept is more appropriate for this university than the bike rental program the SA committee previously attempted to bring to campus. However, the Student Life Committee should work to expand its reach beyond this niche sector of campus to also aid a larger portion of the campus community.

The new bike lanes will supply an additional service for all students, whether cyclists or pedestrians. Student Life Committee members must work to ensure the initiatives they pursue also benefit the majority of SU students.