Editor, Daily Nexus,

Last Friday’s Nexus had a column written by Dennis Whelan, senior campus planner for UCSB’s Campus Planning and Design Dept. (“Call It a Dream, but We Could Become Biketopia,” Daily Nexus, Oct. 15). It was an optimistic and informative column, and I especially liked when he said, “The campus bike system is an evolving vision of Biketopia – a more perfect world for cycling.”

But I have to disagree with some of his vision. For one, if bikers ride single file during class change, half of us won’t get to class on time. And when the path is so crowded, people shouldn’t be trying to pass anyway. Perhaps the bike lanes should be widened to four lanes in the campus core? Using hand signals would be dangerous because the other hand has the cell phone. I’m not condoning it, and I’m not sure it should be legal, but I think one way to get phone privacy while on campus is when riding a bike. But if people are going to juggle their life while on a bike they should at least wear a helmet.

Anyway, it seems more people are riding than last year, as evidenced by always crowded bike racks. Our UCSB campus demonstrates that given the right infrastructure, automobile ownership can just be an option, not a lifetime necessity.

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