As the push for sustainability grows on campus, more and more students are seen riding their bikes to save gas, get to class more quickly and promote a healthier lifestyle. When they aren’t crashing into people walking on the sidewalk, they whiz by to try to get to an open bike rack in time to get to class. While these crazy cyclers should be slowing down, they can’t afford to when they have classes in places like Sturm Hall and the Newman Center, because, a lot of the time, the bike racks are filled up. There is definitely a lack of bike racks on campus, and it’s becoming more and more of a problem for students who want to be on time as the bikers get faster and faster.

Having been almost run over a few times myself in just the three weeks since classes began, we asked fellow classmate Donovan Rice, an undeclared freshman from Golden, Colorado what he felt about the scarcity of bike racks on campus.

“Most places have healthy amounts of bike racks,” Rice said. “At the Mass Communications building it can get a little rough depending on the day and then Sturm is the worst one because it is the center of campus and everybody’s there with their bikes and there’s never room.”

Rice had a few fair points to make when it came to the lack of bike racks.

“If there’s not a space for my bike, I have to go to another building and find another one, and then run to my class so that I’m not late. For the most part I’m satisfied with the bike racks, the big thing is putting in a few new bike racks at Sturm.”

Looking for an open bike rack can often make students late to class, which is another huge issue at hand here. Most professors have a harsh system in place if a student is tardy to class so students have to rush from places like J-Mac, for example, to get to classes on the top floors of Sturm Hall. Katie Busch, a freshman from Rancho Cucamonga, California double-majoring in theater and psychology, has the same opinion about the lack of bike racks on campus.

“I know in front of residence halls there’s enough bike racks but in front of the Newman Center or in front of Sturm there’s not enough for how many people actually have classes there.”

Busch rides her bike to class every day from her room in Towers. “I think that the bike racks could be wider so that more people can put their bikes in, but I would definitely like to see more bike racks where people actually have classes.”

This mode of transportation is meant to be easy and environmentally friendly, not a hinderance to a student’s daily routines. The school has money to install a few more metal racks, so it should be putting more bike racks across campus to help reduce student tardiness and increase our campus sustainability goals. We’re already deep into the fall quarter, yet students are tardy because they had to lock their bike two buildings over. This is an easy problem to solve, but the decision is up to DU to make the changes necessary to promote sustainability and on-time students.