I certainly would not consider myself an avid bicyclist. I reserve that title for much more committed people, who actually take their bikes off-campus. However, in my final two semesters I have finally created the most efficient way to get to and from class, and around campus. I have carefully plotted my schedule based on the bike racks around campus and the location of my classes, which wasn’t easy. Yet I still find myself struggling to get to class and work on time.

Now I could easily blame this on my lack of punctuality or even my inability to adhere to my alarm’s unending urge to roll out of bed. But quite frankly that would be too easy and put far too much blame on myself.

And we all know nothing is ever our fault anymore.

So instead I would like to bring to attention the real parking issue on campus – the lack of bike racks. Now you might have already tuned out long ago and if you’re still listening you consider me outlandish for such a proposition. In that case you probably have never enjoyed the thrills of biking around campus, but hear me out.

There are plenty of racks. But the location of these bike racks was clearly carefully thought out to make it impossible to be efficient. Let me lay it out for you.

Two are on the side of COBA that no one actually enters the building from. There is only one. I repeat one, by the main entrance of the library. In fact, in order to save time I don’t even check that one anymore, I just use the make shift ones by the Starbucks entrance, and I honestly don’t even know if that’s what they were built for. And finally the rush hour of all bike parkings. The traffic jam of a lifetime. The two bike racks to service both the campus center and the bible building. Have you seen the bike traffic at 1 p.m. between those two buildings? Probably not, but it’s bad.

But if it’s not the number of bike racks and just the location, I guess it then becomes a walking issue and not the parking issue again, and we’re back to square one.

Well it was fun to entertain the idea of a campus where all bicyclists were happy and didn’t have to worry about forgetting where they were forced to leave their bike because their wasn’t any parking by the building they needed to go to. Or maybe this wasn’t ever even about bike racks and was just a marketing scheme to repopulate ACU with avid cyclists. “Save gas, get a bike”. You know what, that is what this was. Go ahead and do yourself a favor purchase, or borrow your friend’s bike and I promise you won’t regret it. It. Is. Exhilarating. Scooters and penny boards just can’t compare.