Riding a bicycle across the University is a very dangerous daily undertaking for the average student. Being a bicyclist, I’m no exception to this rule.

On the typical schoolday, I must ride around campus on my bicycle being very cautious, swerving around a morass of students, avoiding bad sidewalks and bumps, and keeping a wary eye out for vehicles. Coupes, trucks, minivans, SUVs, sedans and all other internal combustion engine vehicles are the bane of the college bicyclist. Given the speed addiction of many college students, a good many of them regularly zip about campus and the surrounding areas in BG.

This situation usually results in the following: cars speeding in and out of parking lots, running through red lights, scorching through intersections and exercising reckless and vicious hairpin turns. Needless to say, I feel quite anxious when I hop on my bike seat every morning. Thoughts of sidewalk and road obstacles, inclement weather, colossal and swarming crowds of people and cars attempting to break the sound barrier run through my head. Which makes me hesitant to unlock my bike padlock, sit on my bicycle seat and start off on a bike ride. Seriously, I’m sometimes scared to ride my bicycle (no Queen pun intended).

Based on my observations of college life, it’s a madhouse out there. As I mentioned earlier (and as every single University student knows), the throngs of people wandering about campus are like mini-maelstroms containing a number of fleshy human targets for bicyclists to collide into. Obviously, since I am usually atop a bicycle and am moving forward at approximately 10 miles per hour, I must slow down significantly should I need to navigate these dense pools of college students.

So, essentially, I am approximately halfway up the college vehicle food chain: I am above the pedestrians, rollerbladers and skaters (I move faster than them), but I still present a nice, slow-moving target for people of the car-driving persuasion.

This brings me to my main point. At college, pedestrians are in danger of accidents involving bike riders crashing into them, and bicyclists are in danger of being t-boned by ludicrously fast-moving automobile drivers. Is a very unsettling reality.

I will corroborate these statements: I have had some close calls of my own on my bicycle. Almost turning people into road waffles, dodging automobiles and navigating the irregular sidewalks make it sure that I will continue to have a very interesting experience with my bike. I’ve been forced to squeeze between clusters of people, narrowly missing them by inches.

Inversely, I can think of a handful of times when I narrowly avoided being clipped by fast-moving vehicles – namely, at the four-way intersection near Founders.

One event in particular stands out in my mind: after waiting for the green light, the “walk” light, and after double-checking for any cars, I decided to cross that intersection.

Immediately afterwards, a red blur (otherwise known as a speeding red coupe) swept out of nowhere, ran a red light and almost clobbered my bicycle and I.

Fellow Freshman Amy Brenner feels the same way.

“I think that student drivers are a threat to students on bicycles,” Brenner said. “All they have to do [to be better drivers] is to slow down in the parking lots, take their time and be respectful to pedestrians.”

Anne Boggs argues a different point: “I think a lot of the kids who ride bicycles around campus tend to [be] careless about it. I’ve seen a lot of close calls,” Boggs said.

“I think that bicyclists need to give more warning. They come up out of nowhere and catch you off guard!” she said.

Personally, I can back up both of these standpoints. Bicyclists are indeed dangerous when they attempt to circumvent large groups of clustered students on walkways, and as most people know, the students who regularly drive around town in their high-speed cars pose a threat to bicyclists (actually, speeding vehicles pose a threat to everyone!). I have been in situations where I have almost slammed into the backsides of unsuspecting college kids, and I have been nearly smothered by blitzing cars.

I have tried to be responsible in my bike riding (with no actual accidents; just close calls), but I believe the mega-fast college drivers are the ones who everyone needs to look out for. If you’re simply crossing a four-way intersection on foot, or are riding your bike across Wooster Street, be wary of the potential threats by way of wheeled vehicles piloted by caffeine-addled college student drivers.