The Government of the Student Body’s university affairs committee has taken an initiative to promote bike safety after several students raised concerns about cyclists on campus.

Halley Stille, GSB director of student affairs and senior in french, has plans to make the campus a safer place for bikers and pedestrians.

Stille said she decided to get involved with bike safety on campus because she said she believes that everyone has a bike accident story, herself included.

“I was riding my bike, and a girl was coming at me, and it ended with me on the ground,” Stille said. “I thought it would be a good idea to start informing people about bike regulations before we started having to many problems.”

The university affairs committee has been brainstorming ideas about how to make the campus safer for cyclists. One idea was to give students a flyer about bike safety when they register with the Department of Public Safety, Stille said.

Students are able register on the department’s Web site.

According to the site, the parking regulations have been set in place to “prevent bicycles from parking in areas of high pedestrian traffic, areas that could cause a safety hazard or could be disruptive to other people.”

The university affairs committee will present their flyer idea in a meeting with the ISU transportation advisory committee later this week.

The flyer will include the top five rules for riding on the sidewalk: riding slowly, yielding to pedestrians, checking every cross street and driveway, only crossing the street at crosswalks, and being willing to walk a bike.

Another idea Stille had to improve knowledge about bike safety was to add links with safety suggestions to the department of public safety’s Web site. Stille has yet to talk to the department about this idea.

While students are able to view bicycle regulation laws on the department’s Web site, Stille said the site lacks an explanation of the reason for why the laws are in place. 

Stille said she believes if students knew what they could do to protect themselves and others, in regards to bike safety, the campus would be a much safer place.