<p>That is......I'm sure there ARE bikes. But the campus seems small enough such that if you live right on campus you may not really need one, and thus avert the risk of the every popular bicycle theft. Any opinions from those who've experienced it (or their kids) ?</p>
<p>A bike turns a 15 minute walk into a three minute ride… a lot of people have bikes or longboards/skateboards, even if they live on campus.</p>
<p>Tons of people at USC have bikes.</p>
<p>Get a good bike lock and actually lock your bike to something if you don’t want it to get stolen. I’ve had the same bike for almost three years and it hasn’t been stolen. Although someone did steal the seat post.</p>
<p>Just be aware that if you bike on campus you’d better get good at avoiding oblivious people. Also, there are some no-bike zones where you’ll need to get off your bike and walk.</p>
<p>Having a bike is really useful. Even if you live on campus, maybe your friends would want to bike to a restaurant on Hoover or Figueroa one night instead of walking – or maybe you’re running late to class and need to get there in a hurry. When you move off campus, a bike makes life a lot easier.</p>
<p>If you’re smart about your bike, it’ll be fine. I had my bike stolen freshman year but it was 100% MY FAULT; I left it locked to a chain and it was really easy to slip off and ride it away. My mistake and I learned; the next bike I got stayed with me until the day I moved away from USC and sold it to another student.</p>
<p>Every time I went to USC I saw many, many bikes.</p>
<p>And seeing as I am looking into off-campus housing that is only a ten minute drive, I’m considering buying an old bike and fixing it up for campus fiascos.</p>
<p>do they allow bikes to be kept in the dorm rooms (provided your roomie is ok w/it?)</p>
<p>is USC a bike campus? unfortunately yes. bikes should be reserved for students who live off campus. there is honestly no reason why freshman should ride their bike from somewhere like pardee to THH and yet they do… -_-; obviously freshmen should be able to have bikes since they may have reason to visit friends north of campus or go to ralphs or something… but come on.</p>
<p>I was on campus visiting and I saw people just pick up an unlocked bike and ride it to their destination. Then they just leave it there unlocked. So do these bikes belong to the school? (this might be a stupid question =/)</p>
<p>^ that’s extremely odd o_O</p>
<p>I can’t say I’ve seen that before. Maybe they just had to run in the building for a second and didn’t bother locking the bike?</p>
<p>I did Pardee to THH on my bike as a freshman. Say what you want, but I saved so much time getting around by having a bike. Turned a 3-minute walk into a 30-second trip.</p>
<p>Daughter claimed she couldn’t remember where she left her bike.</p>
<p>I responded, “Oh gee whiz! Go out and look around! How can you forget where your bike is?”</p>
<p>She didn’t find it. </p>
<p>I visited a few weeks later and assumed I would walk out and find it steps from her dorm (in the way moms find missing backpacks actually obstructing the front door when the child claims it is lost forever…).</p>
<p>I encountered a sea of bicycles - Seriously, if there are 16,000 undergraduates, there must be TWO bikes per student strewn across that campus.</p>
<p>I didn’t find it.</p>
<p>So yes, I would say USC is a “bike campus.”</p>
<p>(By the way, has anyone seen a pastel-colored beach cruiser???)</p>
<p>Ugh, a pastel beach cruiser? Really? I despise beach cruisers because their wide handlebars block the spaces next to them in the bike racks, making it impossible to get your bike out without fancy gymnastics or shoving bikes out of the way. Of course it doesn’t help that literally 2/3rds of the bikes on campus are pastel-colored beach cruisers.</p>
<p>Yes, really. And yes, in scanning for the missing bike ALL I saw were pastel-colored beach cruisers! They mesh themselves into an impenetrable web of pastel-colored beach cruisers so that if you spot one waaaaaaaaay in the back that might be the pastel-colored beach cruiser for which you are looking, there is no way humanly possible to make your way through to get a close-up look.</p>
<p>I was at USC this week and saw thousands of bikes. Way too many of them unlocked, and as mentioned, many of them pastel beach cruisers. I have no idea why anyone would not lock them up. Too easy to mistake for someone else’s bike!</p>
<p>Perhaps that happened with the daughter’s situation?</p>
<p>Do you have any recommendations as to what kind of bike I should get? Clearly, not a pastel-colored beach cruiser! 
</p>
<p>Also, does anyone with experience in this field think that I’d be crazy to bring my roller skates? I’ve done artistic roller skating (like figure skating on quads), so I can go forwards and backwards and I’m proficient at stops and things like that. But I’m beginning to think that I’d be way out-of-place with my quads! Thoughts?</p>
<p>I saw kids on skateboards. I even saw a kid on one of those Razor scooters the other day!</p>
<p>I don’t see why not. Just bring along a pair of Rainbo sandals to slip on as you get to class!</p>
<p>You’re going to need to have shoes with you too, and carrying your skates around everywhere is going to get old, really fast. I have seen rollerbladers on campus occasionally, but they are very rare</p>
<p>Many of the bikes that you see “unlocked” are actually locked. People put their locks through the wheel and the frame, so nobody can just ride off on them. Doesn’t stop you from tossing it into the bed of a truck and driving away, but it stops opportunistic thievery.</p>
<p>Get a bike that works and isn’t too flashy. A bright new bike draws thieves with bolt cutters.</p>
<p>Now I’m tempted to bring my razor scooter… </p>
<p>Yeah, you have a point about carrying those skates around-they are heavy! I think I’ll probably buy a relatively nondescript bike and a really strong lock.</p>
<p>haha! Yes, I am sure there was some measure of irresponsibility on lamedaughter’s part (which must come as a relief to many - she is often portrayed as near-perfect in my slightly biased posts 
). The issue only came up as I was asking if she was bringing her bike home for winter break her freshman year and she confessed that it could not be located. Possibilities: the wimpy lock had been snipped with ordinary scissors and the pastel-colored beach cruiser stolen, it could have been parked in a no-bike-parking zone and confiscated by DPS (and lamedaughter neglected to go ask for it back), or it could have been left in the forgotten location sooooo long that it dissolved into a small pile of pastel-tinted rust w/a wimpy lock on top.</p>
<p>Haha, lamedaughter’s lock was probably snipped-based on your other posts, she doesn’t seem like the kind to neglect her things! </p>
<p>[Of course, I’ve never met her, but that’s just my impression. :)]</p>