<p>Well, my son already had his locked up bike stolen outside of the dorm. Is it worthwhile to have one at all, and do you have to store it in your room to keep it safe? What if he had a beat up old bike, would that be safer, or is it a futile endeavor to even have one at all?</p>
<p>DS had a beater for a summer at CMU. Someone gave him the bike, he gave the bike to someone else. The lock was more valuable than the bike. Pittsburgh is pretty hilly and narrow streets which makes biking dangerous. Getting around campus is easily done by feet and around Pittsburgh by bus.</p>
<p>Sounds like a good idea. I’ll advise him to get an old beater bike-though it appears that it’s not even neccessary to have a bike at all.</p>
<p>I also have this question.
I’ve been getting mixed answers:</p>
<p>If you want to use a bike
- they get stolen a lot
- there is this bike locker thing that holds the entire bike… what is this?</p>
<p>If you don’t want a bike
- walking distance can be up to a mile!</p>
<p>If you’re a freshman staying at a dorm on campus, would it be easier to own a bike vs having to walk?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I edit the campus police news, and from the looks of things we get a break in at the Doherty/Purnell bike rack basically twice a week. People report bikes stolen all the time. Honestly, I’d say it’s not worth it to have one - if you’re going to class, usually you walk with your friends, and they don’t have a bike so it’s awkward if you do. Riding at night is dangerous. There are no bike lanes, so riding in the street is also dangerous - I’ve been on a bus that almost hit a kid on his bike! (the kid was lucky to jump onto the sidewalk in time - the driver I guess didn’t see him when we rounded the corner. Bike was trashed.)</p>
<p>The walk is never a mile unless you live in the London Terrace apartments, in which case there’s a bus that’ll take you to/from campus. The walk from Mudge is literally five minutes and that’s the second furthest dorm on campus.</p>
<p>Also, everyone hates ‘that one bike kid’ who goes whizzing past you and forces everyone to move to one side so he can get through. Trust me, you do not want to be that one bike kid.</p>
<p>tl;dr: Don’t bring one.</p>
<p>As soon as I saw the thread title I was going to write “Expect it to get stolen before you graduate.”</p>
<p>If you’re living a good ways off campus (non-CMU apartments) having a bike can be worth it. Especially if you’re not on a convenient bus line. Otherwise I’d say don’t bother with it. Pittsburgh is a pretty bike-unfriendly city with no bike lanes, lots of potholes, and tons of inclement weather.</p>
<p>While having a beater can help you out, I did know someone that spraypainted their bike all sorts of crazy ugly colors and it STILL got stolen. Nobody’s ever seen other people biking around Pittsburgh, so we figure they must be trucked to NYC or something to be sold.</p>
<p>(Living here in Pasadena bike theft seems to be almost non-existent on campus even though it’s a much friendlier city to bikers.)</p>
<p>The quad is built for biking. There are bike holders/lockers all over campus. Not sure about the bike thefts though, but a lot of people bike to different areas. Walking does get insane. From my precollege experiences, you could spend a long time walking to different areas for classes, but its good exercise. If you want to be one the safe side about compromising both concerns, get a skateboard.</p>
<p>people tend to get ****y at people riding bikes on the quad though, especially because the main crossroads (UC, Doherty) tend to be thronged with people between classes, and if you’re on a bike you have to kind of weave and dodge around them. Like chrgra said, a longboard or skateboard would be a good compromise - floormates have them and seem to like them, although they’re not practical in the wintertime. Then again, neither are bicycles, really.</p>
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<p>If you think CMU is bad you should go visit a large land-grant state school.</p>
<p>When I was up there I saw that there was a “no skateboarding” sign. Is this enforced? i have a longboard and would love to bring it up with me! :)</p>
<p>well, campus police kind of like to stay in their cars where they don’t have to walk too much, and they are notoriously bad about enforcing much of anything. (case in point: last night there was a fairly large rooftop party in CFA with several campus police standing in the hallway adjacent to it. Booming music, alcohol and everything. They did nothing for hours.) if you keep it to the pavement and don’t try to like, grind on planters or rails, you probably won’t have a problem.</p>