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Fight for limited space

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Attention fellow off-campus parkers. You are perhaps one of the hundreds of Cal State Fullerton students who willfully choose not spend an absurd amount of money on a parking pass each semester. You have weighed your options and have decided that walking from surrounding neighborhoods everyday, perhaps multiple times a day, makes more sense than purchasing a $220 campus parking permit.

You made an educated decision in my opinion when you realized the price of the permit continues to climb while the number of available spaces continues to decrease thanks to an ever increasing student population vying for parking. Well done. Excellent choice fellow sojourners.

Now, imagine one day on your jaunt from your car parked off campus to your CSUF classes you hear the faint sound of bike wheels behind you and just as you turn to look you feel the brisk wind of an oncoming bike brush your hair and a hear fellow pedestrian on a bike yell “Sorry!” as he or she nearly runs you down.

I know this has not just happened to me. I am sure a number of my walking companions have experienced a similar situation on at least one occasion. I, for one, am tired of dodging bikers as they rudely encroach upon my right as a pedestrian without wheels to occupy the sidewalk.

After pouring over the city of Fullerton’s municipal codes looking for a trace of some kind of ordinance that prohibits bikes on sidewalks, I found nothing. They are protected as pedestrians, right along with those who walk. We walkers are protected from oncoming car traffic, but what about when pedestrians need protection from fellow pedestrians?

CSUF has made some attempt at regulating bike traffic on campus. Written into the CSUF student handbook, there are several articles that address appropriate bike use on campus. Signs alert bicyclists of where they can ride and where they must walk.

What about when we are away from campus? Should we be subject to the often inconsiderate attitudes of bike-pedestrians when we are braving the city-streets of Fullerton?

Robert Urias, 21, a senior mathematics major, rides his bike from his house off campus to school. He explained that he often tries to stick to the sidewalks to prevent getting hit by oncoming car traffic.


I don’t want to get hit. There have been a few occasion where I have almost been hit; a few of my friends have been hit,” said Urias.

I can absolutely sympathise with this plight; I used to ride my bike every day to school too. Come rain or shine, I would unpack my bike and ride to class. I never rode on the sidewalks, though. Never once in a full semester did I feel threatened by oncoming traffic, as long as I remained in the bike lane. After all, it is there for a reason!

Michael Kelton, a third year business major, seems to agree. He rides his bike from his home off campus as well.

“Typically I leave the sidewalks to the pedestrians. We’re bikes. We belong on the street anyway, that’s where the bike lanes are,” said Kelton.

If only all bikers felt the same as Kelton, the world of walking pedestrians would be a much happier and safer place. Until then, I will walk on and bravely face the treacherous sidewalks of Fullerton.


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