Having a 30 minute walk to class is not an option for me. I just won’t do it. I refuse to. I hate speed walking, and like any other Connecticut girl, I always feel that I’m in a rush. To remedy this, I bought a bike to ride on campus, and let me tell you, it was the best $100 that I ever spent! What would usually be a 20 minute walk I can cut into 7 minutes on my bike. Even though riding a bike has it perks, there are some big downsides to riding one:
Let’s start with exhibit number one: Learn to get out of the way people when I bike by. I despise those annoying people who feel it is necessary to walk in the middle of the sidewalk. Didn’t they learn in high school always walk on the right? When I encounter these nuisances on my bike, I usually have to do the slow bike ride behind them, being careful not to run them over. Let’s just say my first week of school I had an embarrassing moment when I had to grab someone’s shoulder when I tried to bike around these people. I even had one person that was walking say to me “You gotta bike around ME girl.” Excuse me, but if you walk in the middle of the sidewalk, move out the way!
Another unfortunate thing about riding a bike on campus is that you never get to walk to class with anyone. Biking can get lonely sometimes. Even if you want to bike with someone it isn’t that fun since you can’t bike alongside them.
The scariest thing about riding a bike is the squirrels. Sometimes I’m just taking a leisurely bike ride to class and bam, a crazy squirrel runs in front of me, only inches from my front tire. These UConn squirrels are just very unpredictable. I have almost run over too many squirrels to count.
Although riding your bike on campus can have its downsides, I wouldn’t trade it in for walking because you always get those extra precious minutes of sleep for your 8 o’clock class. Sleep beats crazy squirrels anyday.