GANDHI ON A MOUNTAIN BIKE

Civil disobedience is the order of the day for bicyclists. The Cambridge Police Department recently increased enforcement of rules applying to the Harvard Square business area that prevent bikers from riding on sidewalks and require them to use headlights when it's dark.

We at Dartboard understand their requiring bicyclists to use headlights, but we cannot understand the mandate that bicyclists not ride on the sidewalks. Although we don't support either situation, we would rather have a bicyclist, hit a pedestrian than a car hit a bicyclist, and the chances of the latter are much greater if the bikes are on the street than if they are on the sidewalk.

Have you ever tried to bike through Harvard Square on the street? I tried it once and nearly became cornmeal between a semi truck and the Coop curb. Cars are relentless enough in targeting pedestrians; they become even more maniacal when competing for road space with other wheeled methods of transportation.

This new enforcement is obviously yet another thinly veiled excuse to oppress Quad residents. That, and the signs prohibiting bicyclists from riding in the Yard. Bicycling from the Quad to, say, Adams House without going through the Yard or riding on sidewalks requires risking death. Not to mention that walking one's bike through the Yard from the gate by the Science Center to the gate near Widener adds a good seven minutes to one's journey, too much for most Harvard students to sacrifice. Most bikers are not kamikazes; surely we can find some way for them to coexist peacefully with ambling pedestrians in the haven that is Harvard Yard.

The police department's new bicycle laws are a massive, misdirected waste of time. All bicyclists should thumb their noses at the officers as they whiz past them on the sidewalks of the Yard and the Square.