Tires squealed as the biker slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting the woman stepping onto the sidewalk in front of Ross Hall.

Instead of apologizing, he glared at her and rode on.

“He just looked at me as if it was my fault because I was walking,” said Jill Gorecki, senior in communication studies.

Busy students are adjusting to crowded sidewalks and chaotic streets, and cyclists add another dimension to a trek across campus. Many bicyclists are not aware of the rarely enforced rules regulating their modes of transportation.

Gorecki, who said she always walks to classes, said bikers and pedestrians need to be more careful of each other.

“I think [bikers] speed around too fast and are disrespectful of walkers,” she said.

Conflicts between walkers and bikers are one of the most common complaints heard, said Jerry Stewart, interim director of public safety.

“It’s very frustrating for pedestrians walking on the sidewalks that aren’t designed for bicycle use to be approached from behind and nearly struck [by a cyclist],” he said.

Each year, DPS receives numerous requests to enforce bike regulations, Stewart said, but officers rarely ticket cyclists. Occasionally, officers will target problem areas and enforce university bike regulations there.

“We simply do not have the resources at this time to devote to this issue on an ongoing basis,” he said.

Iowa’s climate is another reason for the lack of enforcement, he said. It shortens the biking season, making bikes on campus less of a problem during the colder months of the school year.

Gorecki said it would be great if biking regulations were more strictly enforced, but it would be impossible because of the extra time, effort and cost it would entail.

Scott Helms, junior in graphic design, said DPS shouldn’t increase its enforcement efforts, because cyclists don’t pose a serious threat on campus.

He said it would be hypocritical for them to do this because there aren’t enough bike paths on campus and many bikers are totally unaware of the university’s bike regulations.

Angelica Garcia, junior in history, said she never was told about the regulations and has been following the routes of other bikers. She said DPS should send every student information about biking on campus so new students know the rules.

Most of the cyclists Garcia observes are on the sidewalks.

“I try to avoid riding on the sidewalks,” she said, “but I’m worried about getting hit by buses on the streets.”

Other bikers are aware of the regulations but sometimes choose to not follow them.

Helms said he occasionally rides on the sidewalk if it is the most convenient route for him and it isn’t too crowded.

“It’s easier for me to ride on the street, because I don’t have to weave through people and slow down,” he said.

It would be helpful for students to know which pathways bikes are permitted on and if more designated bike paths were built, Helms said.

A path across Central Campus would be particularly helpful in relieving both crowding and conflict, Garcia said.

Stewart said there are several bike paths that cross campus, as well as others that run parallel to or on roads. There are designated bike lanes on Morrill Road and Hyland Avenue, and bike paths run along Stange Road, Pammel Drive and Elwood Drive.

Although DPS has made an effort to ease problems by creating and marking these bike routes, many cyclists don’t utilize them, Stewart said.

For example, he said bikers that live north of campus along Stange Road usually don’t ride on the path on the west side of the road because it’s inconvenient for them to cross the street from the east side, where the university housing is located.

However, bikers aren’t the only ones causing problems.

Cyclist Brent Dakin, senior in marketing, said he gets frustrated when walkers get in his way on the bike paths.

“I just try to be patient and let them go by without zipping past them,” he said.

Gorecki said she can sympathize with bikers like Dakin who are annoyed by ignorant or inconsiderate pedestrians who use paths that are marked for bike use only.

“I try to avoid walking on the bike paths,” she said.

Although most of these paths are identified with signs, walker Christin Meyer, freshman in art and design, was unaware that she shouldn’t walk on them.

She said bikers haven’t gotten in her way. In fact, she said, they usually go out of their way to pass her.

On the flip side of the issue, it would be helpful if sidewalks were marked as clearly as the bike paths with signs informing students that only pedestrians are allowed to use them, Gorecki said.

It also would be beneficial if bikers warned walkers when they are approaching from behind, she said.

When she bikes off-campus, she said she tells pedestrians ahead of her which side she is going to pass on.

Helms and Garcia, who both used to walk to classes, said they always yield to pedestrians.

“I always try to give pedestrians the right-of-way,” Garcia said. “I used to be one.”