As the days in East Lansing roll by, the much warmer spring will bless MSU with its presence. But the sign of favorable weather brings a new look all around campus.
The bikers of MSU will be back in full force, populating both the bike paths and lanes as they travel quickly and efficiently.
But the removal of the bike paths from the 1960s have led to parts of campus simply missing areas where there’s a designated bike lane or path.
To Tim Potter, the sustainable transportation manager at MSU Bikes Service Center, the complete removal of the bike paths might not have been the best idea. Instead, renovating them would have been the smarter route.
Luckily, things seem to be headed in a positive direction. Funding is a huge part of getting things done around campus, which is what MSU seems to be doing.
“The university is requesting funds from the federal government and the state to get some financial support to finish the (bike paths between Farm Lane and Bogue Street),” Potter said.
While improved bike security is important, graduate student Eddie Glayzer said the safest place for bikers to travel is actually on the road.
“I would 100 percent encourage any cyclist to ride on the road," Glayzer said. "I’ve looked at all the safety statistics. ... Sidewalks are multi-dimensional and so we’ve had really bad accidents. ... The road has a lot of advantages. We’ve almost never had car-bike accidents.”
Glayzer said there can be something done about how people view bikers and pedestrians alike.
“There needs to be a cultural shift at MSU,” Glayzer said. “The infrastructure is getting there. We can’t do much to get it faster because infrastructure moves slowly. ... What we can start to do is change the culture on our campus in the way we move around.”
Glayzer is also the creator of Get Off The Sidewalk MSU, a page to get the word out about bikers on sidewalks.
MSU was recently awarded the silver-level Bicycle Friendly University award in the fall. The award program is assessed every four years and given out of Washington D.C. by the League of American Bicyclists.
But for Potter and fellow bike enthusiasts on campus, their goal isn’t just to stay at the silver level.
“We’ve got a bike advisory committee on campus ... and instead of just going for the next logical level, which is a gold level, we want to go for platinum,” Potter said. “We’re working on a whole bunch of things right now to move the university towards platinum."
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