If I had the chance to go back to the summer before my freshman year and tell myself to get a bike, I would do it. And as the campus expands, I would urge every able-bodied new student to invest in a bicycle. I will not be around to experience life in this town once the school begins to get truly huge, but I can guess what it will be like. Pollock road will be just as bad as ever. 
	 Pollock is pretty much the main street on campus, home to the HUB, Willard and Thomas buildings, Old Main, and other important school locations. On a regular school day, much of this road is off limits to motor vehicles, but is often crammed with pedestrians and bicyclists. This is a problem because the road is narrow and intersects lots of roads and walkways. Bikes trying to get through are surrounded on all sides by students who often don’t bother to look where they’re going before crossing the street. Every day accidents and near-misses happen somewhere on Pollock. When it snows, the danger increases. People slip and fall just walking along. I'm not saying these things don’t happen elsewhere on campus, but Pollock is the road most traveled. Curtin road, which parallels Pollock, is also bad. Trying to drive from one end of campus to the other takes an impossibly long time during school hours, especially when a lot of students are walking around. Long lines of students cross the street, blocking all motor vehicles. Also, the bus system is not adequate to carry all the people it needs to, particularly in winter, and this is unlikely to change in the future. Despite global warming, the snow will still be just as bad, and I'm not looking forward to riding my bike over ice.
	My proposal to solve these problems: build a raised, enclosed bicycle pathway, or an underground bike tunnel so that people can ride long distances without having to stop or slow down for pedestrians. As for the problem of congestion on Curtin, foot bridges could be installed so that pedestrians can cross the street without getting in the way of cars. Eventually, some of the loop buses could even be put on their own specially designated roads, or even be replaced by a light rail system.  However, these are all expensive, long-term projects, and some of them may take years or never be implemented at all. These may even be cause more harm than good. Serious research needs to be done to determine what would be the best long-term solution. As Penn State grows, it needs to remain eco-conscious and attempt to maintain the natural beauty that makes this campus so special. The university's idea of solving problems seems to be to throw money at them. This isn't always the most intelligent strategy. Look at the IST building, for example. This is a nearly 59 million-dollar building. 