Two-Gun Apted Slaps Down on Bicyclists as 8-Year-Old Lowell-Flattener Rule Is Revived

A gloomy threat hangs above the heads of Harvard's hundred bicyclists today as Colonel Apted '06 flung his cohorts into action, forbidding the riding of bicycles in the Yard. His authority for the move is a statute of 8 years ago instituted by President Emeritus A. Lawrence Lowell.

The rule first came into effect after a gay cyclist of the class of '28 swooped around a corner and flattened President Lowell himself. The reason for its reenactment is unknown, as there have been no recent accidents. Colonel Apted refuses to make a statement.

A feeling of scorn swept the bicycling world upon the announcement, for such action seems unnecessary in the light of present-day conditions. At Yale, at Princeton, at Oxford, and at Cambridge, students and faculty members ride where they please. At Wellesley and Smith, timid old ladies show no outward fear as bicycles glide silently by them.

The whole feeling of those who know their bicycles was summed up by Ben F. Olken, executive of the Bicycle Exchange and local authority on bicycles when he was interviewed yesterday.

"The difference between the bicycle of eight years ago and today is a great as the difference between a Stanley Steamer and a new Ford", he said. "And in consequence, the danger of colliston is reduced to a minimum.

"Modern cycles have two-wheel brakes. They can stop on a dime. With a gear shift, they can travel as slowly as 4 miles an hour and still have perfect control. This permits safe riding in a crowd.

"In over thirty thousand rentals last year, exactly two collisions took place. Neither had results more serious than a shakeup. Putting this rule into effect would be like enforcing the old 18 mile an hour speed limit for sutos: modern conditions make it ridiculus.

"Of course, there are antiquated bicycles still on the road. I wouldn't want to answer for the results if Julian Lowell Coolidge took to riding through the Yard on his pre-war Iver-Johnson that the modern bike is perfectly safe."