To the Editor:

As The Daily warned us weeks ago, the DPS is on a campaign to thwart the No. 1 problem on campus: those darn bicyclists. Please allow me to recount a personal experience within the last week in regards to this subject.

My daily routine of cycling to school takes me to Osborne Drive heading west to Bessey Hall (past the large campus ash tray) where I keep to the right of the roadway, choosing not to use the bike path assigned to me. On this certain day, I do not know if it was the width of my bicycle or my tremendous girth that caused a DPS truck to honk repeatedly behind me then pass me into the oncoming lane of traffic, all the while motioning with his arm out the window that I get on the bike path (I guess he considered me the endangerment to vehicular movement).

Despite my repugnance, I obeyed his request (but he was soon out of sight, in a hurry to protect that one parking spot on campus, no doubt) swerving around traffic that I may ride on a bike path that ended some 40 feet ahead, only to merge back onto the road to continue to Bessey.

Oh, how I wish I had had time to remind this officer of the Iowa Drivers Manual which states silly things like bicyclists “have the same right to the roadway as cars and trucks” and “Do not blow your horn at a cyclist”. With this now in black and white, I foresee no more problems between myself and the DPS – except the inescapable parking tickets.

Rick Finger

Graduate Student

Botany