Bike Safety Week focuses on cultural shift

By Tina Nazerian     9/30/13 7:00pm

This week is Bike Safety Awareness Week at Rice University, according to Director of the Administrative Center for Sustainability and Energy Management Richard Johnson.

Johnson said he has been at Rice since 2004 and has seen a dramatic increase in the number of bicycles on campus. 

"We're trying to create a culture of safe and responsible cycling on campus," Johnson said. "A culture in which cyclists feel a sense of responsibility to the broader community and [in] which pedestrians also feel responsible themselves for acting safely around cyclists as well."

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According to Johnson, Rice does not have a bicycle safety crisis, but there are specific issues, such as riding in covered walkways, that need to be handled vigilantly. 

"When people step out of those buildings, their first thought is not 'Well, let's look both ways to see if a cyclist is coming,' " Johnson said. "In some of those instances, such as the covered walkway that goes through the natural sciences building, some of those doors open up to a point where if a cyclist is coming through, they could run into a door that suddenly opens. It's dangerous for everybody." 

Johnson said many more Rice students are choosing bikes as an alternative transportation method and are not bringing their cars to campus. 

"When [the Zipcar program] was introduced, in one year while we had 300 additional students, we had 200 fewer vehicle registrations," Johnson said. "So students are relying on the [METRORail], they're relying on Zipcars, they're walking, they're relying on campus shuttles, and they're relying on bicycles."

According to Johnson, Vice President for Administration Kevin Kirby convened a bicycle safety committee a few years ago. 

"At that time, we were a growing campus, and with more people on campus, there was an increased likelihood of collisions between bikes and pedestrians and [between] bikes and cars," Johnson said. "We needed to get our arms around the fact that we have reached a tipping point where we have enough bicycles on campus where it's time to create a culture of safe cycling."

Johnson said the committee developed a number of recommendations, one of which was to conduct periodic campaigns to raise the issue of bicycle safety and awareness to the broader community.

Johnson said bicycle theft, as at any urban university, is also an issue. 

"One of the things that [the Rice University Police Department] discusses with incoming students every year through [Orientation] Week is the need to register bicycles," Johnson said. "It's much easier to recover bicycles once they have been registered, and there's an easy way for students to do that online with RUPD."

Johnson said RUPD will provide bike bells for free to encourage students to pick them up.

"If you're riding carefully on a sidewalk and you're coming up behind a pedestrian, you can either say 'on your left,' or you can ring a bell," Johnson said. "And RUPD has free bells that they'll distribute for those who go to their station to pick them up. And I believe they're Rice-branded this time."

Johnson said he thinks there has been an improvement in regard to bicycle safety since the committee was formed.

"The original RUPD officer who was on the committee told us it will realistically take at least four years to see a real culture shift, and that was maybe three years ago," Johnson said. "I'm seeing what he means by that. It is

happening."

Johnson said there will be more signs about not riding in covered walkways this year.

"We haven't focused exclusively on cyclists, but also on longboarders and rollerbladers," Johnson said. 

Johnson said the committee wants to increase its usage of the "no riding in covered walkways" message.

"When you're communicating to a campus community, in some sense it's like talking to a parade because there are constantly new people coming through," Johnson said. "For a quarter of the undergraduates, this is new; they've not heard this before," Johnson said.

Johnson said the goal of the campaign was to contribute to Rice's culture of care, not to punish bikers.

"I think it's healthy for people to be reminded about that," Johnson said. "In doing this, we have [the] best intentions. We're not out to wag our fingers at anybody; we're doing it because we care about everybody on the campus."

McMurtry College sophomore Andrea Kopczynski said she has never seen or heard of a biking incident on campus, so she does not think bike safety seems to be much of an issue. 

"I also don't know any of the statistics, so I may be wrong," Kopczynski said. "I don't think that it's a bad idea for there to be signs posted around campus reminding bikers to be cautious around pedestrians, but I don't think that the issue needs much more awareness than that. I trust that most Rice students will be smart about where they decide to bike." 

Kopczynski said she had her bike stolen outside the Rice Memorial Center last Thursday night. She said she believes bike theft is a recurring issue on campus.

"To help prevent this problem, I think that RUPD should continue to promote students always locking their bikes, and especially with a U-lock," Kopczynski said. "It is important for the Rice community to promote accountability among ourselves. I have had a lot of friends whose bikes have been stolen, and then they find the bike somewhere else on campus, or a friend of a friend had their bike, and they get it back that way. It is just disappointing to me to think that a fellow Rice student would steal a peer's bike." 

Hanszen College freshman Nick Fleder said he thinks the frequency of bike thefts on campus is problematic. 

"My friend actually witnessed a theft on campus and reported it, and though it was ultimately thwarted, it was worrisome how nonchalant it was for an outsider to come onto campus and walk away with a bright pink bike," Fleder said. "It seemed like a well-practiced habit. More bike racks certainly couldn't hurt, and maybe a few more placed carefully on campus would allow for everyone ... to lock up safely and prevent the thefts."

Fleder said his bike was stolen during the second week of classes, but he said does notfault RUPD.

"RUPD and Rice in general did all they could to prevent the theft - the bike safety they teach is stellar," Fleder said. "I made the silly mistake once of locking my tire to the bike rack, and I came out of my room on a Sunday morning to see my tire locked to the rack, missing the entire frame and back wheel. After I reported the theft, RUPD was in touch within the day to confirm the registered information. They even offered to check the serial number with the Rice Bike Shop to make sure I [had] registered it correctly."

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