Students Bike to Mason

By Broadside Staff Writer Matt Loffman

Freshman Morgan Lee lives 15 minutes from campus—by car. Wednesday morning, Lee left her car at home and woke up early to ride her bike to Mason. It took her 45 minutes to get to campus, and she said the ride was “freezing.”

Lee did not just decide to ride her bike to campus one morning for fun. She took part in Mason’s second annual Bike to Mason day, which encourages Mason students and faculty to bike to campus in exchange for a free t-shirt and bike tune-up.

“I first registered because for my class I could get extra credit, but then I realized that biking is a really good way to help eliminate pollution in the air,” said Lee, an English major.

Bike to Mason day was sponsored by the Office of Parking and Transportation and coincided with other Earth Day activities. Josh Cantor, the director of Parking and Transportation Services, said nearly 200 students and faculty registered for the event.

“We want to bring awareness to biking as a viable option to commute to campus,” Cantor said.

Cantor said biking to campus helps alleviate parking problems and supports sustainability. Some participants saw other benefits.

“I usually walk, but I rode my bike for the free t-shirt and to get my bike tuned up,” said associate math professor Evelyn Sander.

Sophomore biology major Mrinalini Ramanan also rode her bike to campus. She likes biking because of the health and environmental benefits.

“It brings the commuter community at Mason together,” Ramanan added. “Standing in line talking to people I don’t usually talk to is great.”

Participating riders in the Bike to Mason event stood in line for a free bike tune-up from Oasis Bike Works.

“We’re basically doing any minor adjustments and repairs and anything we can do to give them a better ride home,” said Dave Hartford, co-owner of Oasis who participated in the first Bike to Mason day last year as well.

He said the turnout was much larger than last year. He estimated that he worked on nearly five times as many bikes, and the line for tune-ups remained long all day.