Much like Freddie Mercury, I want to ride my bicycle. If you say bike; I say lane. “Jaws” was never my scene, but I do like “Star Wars.”

However, that is completely inconsequential. For the purposes of this exercise all you need to focus on are bike lanes. Or, should I say, the lack of bike lanes in the city of DeKalb?

Like many college towns, DeKalb is home to its fair share of bicycle riders. Yet, unless you are riding in the middle of campus, there is rarely a welcoming zone to ride a bike from one place to the other. Sure, you could ride your bike down the sidewalks of downtown DeKalb like many do, but doing so is technically against the law. This only leaves the law-abiding bike rider one frightening option: to ride on the side of the street.

Perhaps this is not a foreboding problem for riders with strong internal fortitude. But to riders like myself who are, to put it delicately, wimps, the entire situation is positively horrendous.

Nevertheless, earlier last week I decided to put my fear behind me and ride down the street. What a horrible idea.

I was on Stadium Drive headed toward campus. I was going fast — really, really fast. As I approached campus, what I thought would be a gentle inclination welcoming me to the spacious walks on campus turned out to be a full-blown curb. Not wanting to jump the curb, I hit the breaks on my bike. At this point my front tire stopped completely while my back tire started rising above the pavement. Suddenly, like “dynamite with a laser beam,” I flew over the handlebars of my bike and landed on the street, like a failed Olympic gymnast. “Another one bites the dust.”

Thankfully, two women who happened to be sisters were walking by and stopped to help me. They even waited while my girlfriend came to pick me up so I could go to the hospital. Relatively, the damage was minimal. I had a sprained knee and needed five stitches in my elbow. It could have been worse.

Hyperbole aside, the entire ordeal could have been averted if a third situation had presented itself. That option, of course, would be a bike lane. If built, bike lanes would make our community a safer place.

A 1999 study by the U.S. Department of Transportation noted that, “both [bike lane] and [wide lane curb] facilities can and should be used to improve riding conditions for bicyclists.” The safety benefits extend out to drivers as well. Drivers veer through the meridian to avoid bicyclists. This obviously causes safety hazards for drivers in either lane.

Freshman biology major Allen Dunn, agreed that bike lanes would be a good idea.

“Yeah, that way you’re not having to swerve in and out of people,” said Dunn.

A 2006 study conducted by the University of Texas noted that cars did not swerve as far left with marked bike lanes along the road.

Safety is not the only benefit, though. Although adding bike lanes wouldn’t completely remove the possibility of injury, it would be a step toward making DeKalb a safer place to walk, drive or cycle.

No matter what happens, “I don’t wanna be a candidate for Vietnam or Watergate.” All I want to do is bicycle, and Mama I don’t want to die.

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