Oxford cyclists bemoan bike lane parkers

By Colleen Grimm, The Miami Student

Bicycles are a popular way to traverse the streets of Oxford, both on campus and off. But a lot of questions have been raised over the safety of cyclists. Cars have been double parking and stopping in bike lanes, and cyclists have not been obeying traffic signs and signals.

"The sidewalks aren't wide enough to accommodate bikers and pedestrians, and if there is a bike lane, there are cars in it," said Jill Frye, a first-year who rides her bike to class at least once a week. .

Cyclists in Oxford have been chronicling safety issues regarding cars sitting in bike lanes on a Facebook page called "Bikeable Oxford!" The site has reports of cars, both school and student owned, pulling over and parking in bike lanes to drop people off and throw away trash.

Michael Flitcraft, a member of the page, gave an account of a recent issue with a school-owned vehicle.

"This morning at 7:45, a Miami University Physical services pickup, white, plate ending in 559 decided it would be prudent to park in the bicycle lane to put minor amounts of trash in the cans, instead of parking in the driveway/parking spaces less than a block from Armstrong. The driver thought this was justified since he was putting trash in a can. I think it's incredibly unjustified."

This was not the end of the issue. A few hours later, Flitcraft ran into another problem:

According to his post, a student driving a white Maserati was parked in the bike lane less than 20 yards from the driveway next to Armstrong.

"I asked what he was doing, and 'dropping off this girl' was the response. He had no concept of what a bike lane is and isn't to be used for as the conversation progressed."