If you’ve ever been running late to class or been stuck waiting at a TCAT stop and wished you had a better way to get around campus, you will be happy to learn that Big Red Bikes, a bike-share program, is scheduled to begin operation at Cornell after spring break.
Similar in organization to the well-established Ithaca Carshare program, Big Red Bikes will allow students to check out bikes from the Uris Library circulation desk using just their Cornell ID cards. This service will be free for all Cornell students (as long as they abide by the necessary time restrictions and return their bikes within a day). The bikes will be kept locked outside Uris, and students will be issued a helmet and key when they check out a bike. Students can then return the bikes to the Uris bike rack or another nearby rack.
Co-presidents of Big Red Bikes, Sarita Upadhyay and Martin Leung, say their program will affect students’ lives on a daily basis: “Big Red Bikes is going to allow anyone on campus to be a bicyclist, whether they are enthusiasts or a casual commuter. It will give students more personal choice in transportation – another way to get around besides driving, TCAT, or walking.”
Upadhyay and Leung also emphasize that Big Red Bikes will give students the opportunity to benefit from bike use without having to spend time and effort maintaining and storing a bike. This makes the program perfect for those who would like to bike occasionally, but “not frequently enough to own one.”
If successful and well-utilized, Big Red Bikes stands to have a visible impact on transportation at Cornell. The absence of a campus bike-share program has so far “limited students’ transportation options,” Upadhyay and Leung assert, “leaving them stranded at a bus stop or walking from one end of campus to the other.” But this could change if students take advantage of the resources offered by Big Red Bikes.
Although the program will initially include only 20 bikes located outside Uris Library, it is scheduled to expand over the next year to include bikes stored outside Mann Library and Robert Purcell Community Center, allowing more students to access its services more easily.
This is a poor idea, for three reasons: (1) lice from the helmets; (2) Cornell, unlike Paris, is on a hill; and (3) almost all young people who can ride a bike can jog (if necessary). I propose, instead, Big Red Running Shoes. Far better for the environment, and shoes do not compress the nerves that allow for erections and orgasms.