Bicycle Stand

Bicycles are both silent and deadly, a menace to pedestrians and a terror to drivers, yet they have proven to be one of the most efficient ways for getting around Harvard Square. And the motor scooter, once an object for the adventurous rich, has become quite democratic and, one might say, even common. But both of these vehicles have been snubbed in University policy, or perhaps merely buried beneath the more weighty matter of parking.

In a recent statement, University Police chief Matthew Toohy urged bicycle owners to keep their bicycles "out of the area reserved for motor scooters" near Harvard Hall. But such a statement ignores the fact that neither bicycle owners nor scooter drivers have adequate parking facilities near Harvard Hall--or, for that matter, anywhere else.

But parking is not the only problem of a bicycle owner. Stealing of both bicycles and scooters (eight scooters have already been stolen this fall) is a situation with which the University Police cannot possibly deal except with Administration support. By pressing Cambridge to enforce its law on required bicycle registration and by requiring such registration within the University, the University could take a long step towards discouraging bicycle theft.

But perhaps Cambridge and Harvard would rather discourage the bicycle rider, who, after all, does contribute to the traffic problem. If so, both have ignored a possible alternative of encouragement--that several automobile drivers would bicycle or scooter around the Square if things were easier on them.

While Harvard will never become a bicycle haven such as Radcliffe, if it were to become scooterized, Cambridge would have less to complain about in traffic and parking matters. Hopefully, the Harvard and Radcliffe Administrations will not continue to ignore the problems of its motorized and pedaling students. A joint or "tandem" policy is in order.