<p>I’m going to be living off-campus (about six-seven blocks away). Is it sensible to ride a bike to class? Is there a lot of bike theft?</p>
<p>Hi justina11. I can’t say I’m an expert on bikes in NYC, but since nobody else has answered, I’ll take a stab at it!</p>
<p>It would be a lie to say that there isn’t any bike theft around campus - there’s some, but I’m sure it’s similar to the amount of bike theft all around NYC. You should probably invest in a good lock, but again, that’s NYC for you, not Barnard/Columbia specifically. </p>
<p>As for biking to class, that’s up to you.
One thing to keep in mind, NYC isn’t the most bike friendly of cities - there are more and more bike lanes, but there aren’t any up by Barnard/Columbia or really above midtown, I think, and it is technically illegal to bike on the sidewalk. Personally, as I have no experience with urban biking, I would be kind of nervous to start in the streets of New York.
(But that’s me.)</p>
<p>Oh, and my final biking point would be that sometimes it’s difficult to store bikes in NYC apartments. I, for example, live in a 3-bedroom 4th floor walkup. If I wanted to keep a bike, I’d have to carry it up and down 4 flights of stairs, and goodness knows where it would live in my apartment. I think some people keep bikes in our trash alley, but I’m not sure how safe that is. At any rate, storage of ANYTHING in New York is an issue, always.</p>
<p>I’ll add this: By six-seven blocks, do you mean north-south blocks, or east-west blocks? If they’re north-south blocks - i.e. you’re living somewhere around 109th St - you should keep in mind that 20 north-south blocks equals 1 mile. So 6-7 of those blocks would be a bit over a quarter mile. It’s more difficult with east-west blocks because they vary in size, but they’re all much longer than north-south blocks. Did that make any sense?
I lived in Cathedral Gardens my senior year, which is a 20 minute uphill walk to campus on a good day, and I walked pretty much every day. I do a LOT of walking in NYC, much more than I ever did back home. If it’s just a subway stop or two, I’ll walk it.</p>
<p>Does that help?</p>