Dear Editor:
There is no easy way to reduce overcrowding ("Gym-goers must wait until 2011 for relief from overcrowding" Feb. 6), but I have a very simple suggestion for Messrs. Gehling and Pimentel to make things go a little more smoothly in the meantime: sign-up lists.
Every commercial gym I have ever been to has implemented this in some form or another: Number the machines and have people sign up for a slot to use that number.
Before you begin on a machine, you write the time you started in a slot on the front. This saves you and others from asking "how much time do you have left?"
You have a limit of 2 minutes to get to your machine after the previous person finishes. If you don't make it, the person signed up after you gets to cross out your name and take the machine.
There is also a one hour advance sign up limit, meaning no more than three people can be signed up for a single machine at any given time. The details of this plan may need to be tweaked, but in general, the idea works because it structures access, resists cheaters and holds everyone accountable (because of the paper trail).
Marc ChiariniClass of 2009
