Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Anne Rigor Beth Harberts, a Grad Student in Kinesiology, pauses a moment before riding off to class on her bike.

Media Credit: Anne Rigor A single bicycle is locked to the railing outside the Art building on Monday.

A proposed new policy that would permit non-motorized vehicles such as skateboards, roller/inline skates and scooters as well as bicycles is being evaluated by the Office of the President, said SJSU Parking Traffic and Transit Advisory Committee Chair Linda Roper.
"We composed the proposal as logical common courtesy rules," said Roper.
UPD wrote the most recent version of the proposed policy, titled the "SJSU Non-Motorized Vehicle Policy." UPD is one of the groups presented on the Transit Committee.
The existing policy, Presidential Directive 90-01, restricts use of "skateboards, roller skates and similar devices," on campus at any time.
Steve Sloan, help desk and information technology support services specialist and lecturer in journalism & mass communications, opposes the new policy.
"I think formally allowing bikes in the campus core is a big mistake," he said in an email interview. "I do not believe this is a place where bicycles belong."
Presidential Directive 90-01 restricts through-campus bicycle riding on San Carlos Street, Paseo de Cesar Chavez, Eighth Street and Ninth Street. Biking is permitted on Fourth Street, San Fernando Street, San Salvador Street and 10th Street on the campus' outer perimeter.
The new policy will not expressly eliminate areas where bicycling is off-limits according to Roper.
"Right now, the bike zones are not set in stone," she said, referring to the absence of defined bicycling areas in the new policy.
Sloan believes that more bicycles on campus would be a safety issue.
"I ride 80-100 miles a week, yet I am concerned that the riding of bicycles in the campus core poses a threat to both cyclists themselves as well as pedestrians," Sloan said.
Sloan was on the Campuswide Safety Advisory Committee, a human resources group that hears safety petitions from administrative staff, faculty and on-campus unions, when it recommended Presidential Directive 90-01 to President Gail Fullerton. Sloan remains a current member of the Safety Committee.
Michaux Burchard, chair of the Safety Committee and a human resources representative on the Transit Committee, believes that the Safety Committee does not have grounds to oppose the proposed new policy because it does not pose a campus safety issue.
"It's easy to say somebody's going to get hurt," Burchard said in reference to claims that the new policy would be a safety hazard, "but we don't see the evidence."
Edward Chichester, a lecturer in chemistry, thinks that the real safety issue is bikers having to ride on the outer perimeter of the campus in automobile traffic.
"There are no bike lanes," Chichester said. "Someone is really going to get killed on Fourth or 10th Street."
Andy Chow, commute specialist coordinator in Associated Students Transport Solutions, a group established in 2000 to "alleviate traffic congestion and reduce the high demand for limited campus parking facilities," and one of its representatives on the Transit Committee, agrees that possible safety hazard issues are not serious.
"It's like saying 'to prevent car accidents, cars are banned,'" said Chow, referring to the barring of bicycles from certain areas of the campus.
Transportation Solutions supports the new policy because of issues with parking on campus according to Chow.
The new policy includes the placement of signs on campus indicating areas off-limits to bicycles.
"There should be signage even with the old policy," Roper said. She was not sure why the current signs have been neglected.
The Transit Committee has been working on a new policy for the past five years that would include new signs, Roper said.
Chichester, who has biked to campus for the past 20 years, believes that the rules regarding bicycles on campus have been subject to neglect.
"It doesn't impact their lives," he said, referring to what he sees as a lack of interest amongst the administration.
The Office of the President has the final say in whether any new bicycle policy will be implemented.
"They should have planned it a lot better," said Henry Joseph Morillo, a graduate student in social work, referring to the existing policy.
Morillo received citations from the UPD in the past for biking up to the bicycle corral adjacent to Washington Square Hall. The corral is set in the middle of an unlabelled no-bicycle zone.
The Transit Committee will have a new meeting on Sept. 25 in the AS House to discuss revisions to the new policy.

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