With move-in dates starting only a few days away, one thing Iowa State students shouldn’t forget to bring alongside their TVs and gaming consoles is their bikes. Even with masks and washing hands, riding the buses is an unavoidable way to come in close contact with students or surfaces where COVID-19 could be exchanged.

Biking or walking to class is a great way to social distance, as well as stay healthy outside of the gyms on campus. Not to mention how, even though CyRide is moving forward with CyRides, we’ve still got a ways to go before clean energy is a priority on campus, including making good habits of biking on campus, which could transition to off-campus life.

This would allow students to have a different mode of transportation in the future besides a too-expensive car. Even if RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) was canceled this year, keeping up with Iowa’s biking community by keeping the streets and sidewalks safe for bikers and walkers — especially with late nights getting back to one’s dorm — is incredibly important to our campus community.

Delenn Palmer is a sophomore majoring in meteorology and minoring in classical studies.