Virginia Tech undergraduates are the worst drivers that I have ever seen in my life. Perhaps undergraduate drivers everywhere are terrible and I just haven’t noticed. After all, at Vanderbilt parking is extremely limited, and the undergraduate drivers are dilluted by drivers in the city of Nashville. At Cornell, parking was again limited, and the parking that does exist is mostly on the periphery of campus. Since I usually rode the bus, I didn’t have to do battle with students in cars too often. Here, though, I encounter students on the roadways every day, and I am afraid. They pull out in front of me, speed through parking lots, and generally make driving on or near campus a terror.

This is especially troubling as I’m riding my bike to school until we get a second car. We’re going to have to get one soon, though, before I die at the hand of a VT undergrad behind the wheel. I seem to have a terrifying experience on my bike at least once a week. The most popular offensive manuever is passing me and then cutting me off by making a right turn. Yesterday, I saw a new one as a guy almost pulled out into the side of my bike. It seems that he was looking down the street for other cars, but as a bicycle I was invisible. I swerved and shouted, and he looked at me like I had just materialized out of the ether. No road rash yet, but I fear it is only a matter of time. At least in a car there is a ton of steel between me and my undergraduate nemeses; on a bike, all I’ve got is a helmet.

I’m all for helping the environment with alternative transportation, but I’d rather not risk my life in order to do so…