Biking on campus provides students with the freedom to get to places around campus faster than waiting around for a bus or walking, and provides us with a sort of independence to get around rather quickly, especially for those of us who lack cars on campus.

Better yet, biking is also a more sustainable practice as we reduce gas emission and traffic — an important factor for a school who values our green campus.

However, as we indicated in one of our earlier editorials this semester, the bike infrastructure on campus is bombarded with a slew of issues such as lane inconvenience, lack of safety, poor path clarity and high pedestrian/biker traffic.

For these reasons and more, we encourage students to vote in tomorrow’s school-wide referendum. The referendum will ask students whether they favor a $1 student-initiated fee to be spent toward bicycle-related projects, such as improving the bike lanes and paths.

Projects also include creating educational materials on biking, helping fund the Campus Bicycle Shop, hiring a bicycle coordinator and expanding the bike-rental program.

Facilities and Services released an infrastructure plan last year, detailing $4 million worth of projects that could help biking on campus. The plan currently sits in limbo though, as no specific funds are allocated toward bicycle-related planning.

The fee proposed on the referendum would generate roughly $80,000 a year, as students would pay $1 per semester. However, Grace Kyung, supporter of the fee and graduate student, hopes the passing of the fee will also show administration the immense support for biking on campus. With the continual lack of state-funding, updating bike lanes does not seem to be of great concern to the University.

Most of the paths were created in the 1960s and 1970s and are in dire need of an update. Some paths were added later, but not all of them follow the same lane pattern, leading to lack of lane clarity.

Additionally, the League of American Bicyclists deemed the University’s campus as a bronze-level bike friendly campus — something that could be changed to a silver or gold level with these improvements.

While we understand that fees are a drag for everyone, only $2 a year will not crack the piggybank (hey, that’s less than half the cost of an eight-inch Jimmy John’s sandwich), and the money would go toward providing a safer and more accessible campus.

Take advantage of one’s ability to vote and make sure to cast your opinion in the referendum by voting online on Wednesday and Thursday.