With so much focus on campus construction and its effects on on-campus parking, we're glad to see so many of our fellow students riding their bicycles, skateboards and longboards to campus.
This a great thing and has many benefits: it's better for the environment and encourages physical fitness.
We would like to encourage more people to participate in such behaviors, but there are inherent, apparent problems that come along with increased traffic of the bicycle and skateboarding variety.
With bicycles, the main problem seems to be that campus already has more bicycles than it has the capacity to deal with.
The bicycle racks outside of Haley Center and along the Concourse are almost always full, and Haley Center has more bike racks than any other place on campus.
With those racks full, students are forced to chain their bikes to whatever structures are available, as schlepping a bicycle to class is both odd and slightly insane.
However, the Campus Bike Committee is already pursuing solutions to this issue, trying to make Auburn a more bike-friendly campus.
The committee's plans include the creation of more bike routes on campus and adding six to 10 spaces for bikes near every major building on campus.
The committee also has designs to create large, covered structures to house bicycles, anticipating a growth in bike traffic on campus.
We applaud their efforts to help make our campus a more eco-friendly place.
For our skateboarding and longboarding friends, the major concern is not so much parking as it is violating campus policies.
While we've never seen anyone be punished for it, the current policies do not allow skateboards or rollerblades on campus, so students who choose to travel to campus using such means face incurring a $50 ticket to do so.
We can somewhat understand the University's reluctance to allow skateboarding in its recreational forms, but as a means of conveyance and transportation in a time of rising fuel prices, we think the policy deserves reconsideration.
If skateboards and longboards are used responsibly, we see no problem as to why they could not be approved.
As a possible sweetener and revenue enhancer, why not charge boarders for the privilege like bike and motorcycle owners? A permit seems to be the logical way to go here.
Recreational skateboarders, let's lobby for a skate park for you to practice your sport and leave the campus for transportation purposes only.
If Auburn is willing to make the changes and amendments, we can forsee a future where more students are better able to take advantage of alternative means of transportation, and that can't be a bad thing.
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