Biking around

I have a road bike and I would love to go out for a ride here at Purdue, but there are not any good options. I am from the North shore of Chicago. I could go ride my bike there for hundreds of miles on bike trails. Around here there are not many paths. The paths that do exist are not very long and are not all connected. I can bike most of the trails in about an hour.

Most people around here just go ride there bikes out on the streets. It would not be quite as bad when you get away from Purdue and get on the more country roads, but it would still be really dangerous. Some of these roads are where people whip past you at 60. Remember you are sharing the road with them, so if they don’t notice you, they will hit you. The bike clubs in this area avoid Purdue campus like the plague because there are way to many cars around the campus that makes it dangerous and the problem is I live right across from campus.

The bike lanes on some streets here are just a joke. They are about a foot and half wide and consist of half asphalt lane and half concrete curb. The problem with that is not only is it really narrow, but the asphalt and concrete are not level, so you risk crashing it you tire touches the uneven edge.

Lafayette and West Lafayette need more bike trails. I know this area is small in comparison to what I see in Chicago, but I wish there were safer means of going for a bike ride than having to risk ones life while sharing the road with cars.