... to mac???

I'm doing some research into why people don't bike to mac or if there are any problems they have with biking here.

I don't care what the problem is, even if its just a minor inconvenience with anything from security to bad positioning of bike stands.

The more problems, the better.

Thanks for your help.

I don’t bike to Mac (it would be a bit hard to bike from Brampton to Hamilton :p), but I know a lot of people who complain that there aren’t enough bike racks on campus.

EDIT: There was actually a thread about the lack of bike racks on campus. You can read through it here. Hope that helps!

I love biking to school.. to take the transit to school it takes about 8 minutes.. I can bike to school in 6 minutes.. lolol

i almost always bike to school.. except when i feel really lazy or i am sick.. and i am usually sick from biking to school when its freezing outside..

and for the bike racks, there are not enough but its not a problem because everyone parks where ever they want anyway.. and the rent a cops at mac are nice enough to just give out warnings instead of actually confiscating the bikes..

so i dont think this whole thing is an issue at all.

I don't think i know how to ride a bike any more.
But even if i did, my backpack is probably too heavy and i'll fall off.
Its also more dangerous than taking the bus.

- I live too far, biking would take me over 2 hours each way
- In the winter, it's cold. In the spring, it's rainy. In the summer/fall, I sweat from biking
- my bag is an over-the-shoulder bag (like a large purse) and it always gets caught in my wheel when I put it on my handlebars
- the bike racks are always full on campus
- I wear heels most days (when it's nice enough outside), and they get caught in my peddles. It's a hassle to bring a pair of sneakers every day

I enjoy biking for fun on my free time, but it's a huge hassle to bike to school

I have a basket on my bike, so carrying large things like my backpack is easy

When I don't bike it's usually because it's too cold.

Sometimes though, it can be scary to get around campus, because there's not much emphasis on bike traffic - theres a kinda-bike lane on the main road, and other than that it's like, how do you get around people or cars? I've been sideswiped by a car coming out of the main street exit so... pretty scary!

Fear of having $1400 of bike stolen.

So I bought a cheap bike from Canadian Tire just for riding to school.

It was stolen.

And I never rode a bike to McMaster again.

To be honest, I just found it inconvenient. I biked to school everyday for first year, and it only saved me a couple of minutes from walking. Once your on campus, you're pretty much confined to the same speed as the people walking around you. You also can't ride directly from class to home, because you need to go pick up your bike from where you left it.

Maybe if we could get the roads free of traffic it would be different, lol.

I don't bike when it's cold.

Other than that it's all good.

I love biking to school! However, my bike has been stolen twice now and I am not replacing it this time. I think theft is a big deterrent.

I don't know how much help I can be here, because I love biking to school and I even do it when it's freezing cold, snowing, and icy. It's just so much faster and efficient, and I'm too lazy to walk.

But things do happen that make me very close to not wanting to bike to school anymore:
- during peak times, there's buses everywhere and it's kind of stressful navigating around them on the road, and pedestrians on the sidewalk. the "bike line" randomly ceases to exist near the life sciences bus stop.
- lack of places to lock bike .. especially near the student center
- i bike on the side of the road, to avoid inconveniencing pedestrians, but pedestrians are really unpredictable and like to randomly jump on to the road without looking both ways and it severely irritates me. sometimes they'll randomly decide they want to cross the street far from a cross walk (like from LSB to JHE or something) without looking both ways and magically expect nothing else to be travelling down the road. or, they'll be joking around with their friends and randomly push somebody on to the street, which seems to happen a lot (or they laughing andr andomly jump on to the side of the road, which would normally be fine, but bicyclists use the side of the road). or they are walking in a very large group that the sidewalk cannot accomodate so they insist on walking alongside on the side of the road. it's like, i understand bicyclists are a huge annoyance sometimes (i hate going around bicycles when im driving a car) and some are very inconsiderate, but come on, if you randomly decide to jump on to the street without looking first, how is anybody going to avoid crashing into you (or swerving away from you and nearly hitting a bus).

-Ive had 3 bikes stolen on campus.
-My tires have popped 3 times in about a week from random crap on the roads.
-I always get chain grease all over my pants.

None of these are really solvable, but those are the reasons I haven't bothered to repair the 3rd popped tire, and haven't biked to school in about a month. Will probably start again in the summer.

Originally Posted by ladyh

- lack of places to lock bike ..

There are so many bike racks on campus there is never a lack of places to lock up your bike. Everyone just complains because the racks where they want to park are full. All you need to do is go to the next set of bike racks probably 50-100m away and there will be room.

I've had my bike stolen once when I left it locked over the weekend near the JHE annex.

The lack of bikes racks isn't really a hassle as I always lock it to the edge of a full bike rack or a nearby tree.

There are a lot more pro's then con's though.

It is quicker then walking, and when including wait time for the bus, it is also quicker.
I can get to the gym in 5 minutes compared to 25 minutes walking/busing.

Originally Posted by ThatGuy

There are so many bike racks on campus there is never a lack of places to lock up your bike. Everyone just complains because the racks where they want to park are full. All you need to do is go to the next set of bike racks probably 50-100m away and there will be room.

Have you ever tried locking up your bike anywhere near MUSC within the first 3 weeks of September? The ones next to MUSC are full, as expected, and if you cross the road to the edge/corner of the BSB lawn, the 4-5 racks along there are full too (which is I guess why people resort to locking them up along the fence around the grassy area in front of UH but then you get the warning ticket thing). If you go a little further to BSB, those ones are always filled too (I suppose with people who actually want to go to BSB). I end up locking up in front of GSB, and by the time I find a spot there, it would have been faster for me to walk anyway.

However, I have considered that I might just have bad luck with bike spots (if I assume there will not be spots in front of MUSC/BSB I just bike straight to GSB and lock it there. But as I walk back to MUSC, I notice there are many vacant places to put my bike. If I decide to take my chances and spend time looking for a place to lock up next to MUSC, there will of course be none anywhere close by except at GSB).

I'm glad they added extra spaces between MDCL and HSC though.