The "old school" bike paths that ran between Shaw Hall and the Red Cedar River on the grassy area have been removed for two reasons, Tim Potter, sustainable transportation manager at the MSU Bikes Service Center, said.
Potter said the first reason for removal is age — the paths were put in around the 1960s and were one of the first attempts at a bike path. The second reason for removal was the narrowness of the paths. The paths were only 18 inches wide compared to the nation-wide standard of four feet set for new bike paths.
“I used to use those now-and-then especially during class change if the path was jammed with pedestrians I would use those paths and they were acceptable to me," Potter said. "A lot of people probably found them hard to ride on because they were so narrow. They became more of a balancing challenge than some people would like.”
Potter said it would have been better if the university improved the bike paths instead of removing them all together, but was told the funding for a project as such wasn't there.
“In other places like from Farm Lane all the way to the Sparty Statue and to the Kellogg Bridge they ("old school" paths) were removed and then replaced with a nice facility for bikes," Potter said. "They upgraded both a pedestrian walkway and a path for bicyclists, marked it clearly and it became a much better, safer facility for everybody."
Potter said that although no improvement for bicycling in the area between Shaw Hall and the Red Cedar River has been made yet, the possibility for the university to make a change is still open.
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