How common is it for students to bike around Cambridge? I ride my bike for excercise so I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do once there in the Fall.
Are there trails near Cambridge/Harvard? Is it common for students to have bikes on campus?
I used to bike to H every day when I lived off-campus. There are a lot of bike racks. You have to walk your bike when in the Yard. There is a nice 20 mile bike trail that runs alongside the Charles River. A big problem though is that Cambridge has a VERY high rate of bike theft.
While it’s common for students to bring bikes to school and chain them to racks around campus, it’s also very common to have your bike stolen. If you bring a bike to Cambridge, my recommendation is to bring one you can afford to readily replace if it is stolen. See: http://bikenapped.com/data.html and http://www.metro.us/local/bikenapped-harvard-student-creates-website-to-track-bicycle-thefts/tmWlli—876GBc5rHS6/
Check out Cambridge / Boston riding and trail recs in this blog:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/health/blog/2013/11/07/lovely-bicycle-blogger-constance-winters/
Bike theft is so common that my older son’s girlfriend’s bike was stolen out of his summer storage space. But it didn’t matter. They broke up during the summer, anyway.
You might find it best to buy an inexpensive bike once you’re on campus rather than bring/ship your bike from home.
There is a bicycle sharing company, called Hubway, with stations adjacent to and on campus. Check it out online. My son used these bikes to get from a class near the yard to a class on the law school campus once a week during his freshman year. You can sign up for several different passes–24 hour, 72 hour, month or annual. (If you decide to use these bicycles, be sure to bring your helmet along–and use it!)
(ETA: Son also had a bicycle stolen summer after sophomore year.)