Why are there no bicycles at BSU parking lot?

BSU students managed to persuade the university’s administration into organizing a bicycle parking lot. They collected 100 signatures. However, it turned out that there were not many cyclists among BSU students – only 4 or 5 places are taken out of the 27 available at the parking place.
The administration of BSU is discontent. The deputy pro-rector on administrative and economic activities Ihar Rusajevich even noted that the girl who had initiated the collection of signatures had not bought her a bicycle although she promised to do it as soon as the parking lot was created.

The European Radio for Belarus has found that girl. Yulya Dzikovich, the initiator of the bicycle parking place, says she had not bought her a bicycle because she had not collected enough money for it. However, the activist does not think everything was in vain.

Dzіkovіch: I left the city in summer and when I came back I saw that there were two or three times more cyclists in the city and in the university. I think it is a forward-looking step. Of cause you can’t expect all young people to go to school by bicycle.

Students coming to the university by bicycle every day also know about the administration’s discontent about the number of cyclists. Pavel Chumakou, a fifth-year student of geography department, who created a web site dedicated to the bicycle parking place of BSU, does not see any problem here.

Chumakou: I read an article where it was stated that the parking lot cost almost nothing to the university – about 100 USD. I see 3 or 4 bicycles every day there. It means that the number of cyclists has increased by three or four times. Furthermore, the cycling season is coming to an end but I’m planning to continue bicycling for one more month.

Pavel is very happy that there is a bicycle parking lot near the university now. BSU security guards used to forbid students to leave bicycles in the yard. Now it is much safer – you can leave them at the parking lot that is near the car park which is being watched.

The parking problem has been solved but students from other cities have other problems. According to safety measures, students are not allowed to keep bicycles in the hostel.

The former head of the economic department, the pro-rector’s aide Mihail Syankevich says that they are going to organize garages for bicycles on the campus soon.

Syankevіch: There is a stadium which is not really used so we would like to organize everything so that cyclists could go there.