The Transportation Services Department is struggling to find students to participate in its recently revamped bicycle registration program, Transportation Services officials said.
Registration has been slow since Transportation Services officials announced they would take over the formerly police-led initiative, Transportation Services Director David Allen said.
Registration through Transportation Services will help track stolen bikes, alert students who are parked illegally before impoundment and inform the department of flaws in the university’s current bike system by asking for feedback from bicyclists. The new registration will also make the process more convenient for students by offering multiple registration locations while keeping the records available to both University Police and Transportation Services, according to police Spokesman Paul Dillon.
Transportation Services is giving the first 100 registrants a certificate for a free U-lock and still has some remaining, Allen said.
Allen said he did not plan on advertising the program much, as its turnout doesn’t impact his department in any major way. He said he had hoped to get student feedback on bike-friendly changes that can be made on the campus, but he is not financially invested in the bike registration turnout.
“If a student does not read their e-mail and does not read the mail they get, they won’t [find out about registration]. Some of it is word-of-mouth. We’re starting the registration in a rolling manner, and it will be slow in the beginning,” he said.
“It’s going to create a community of bicyclists on campus so we can contact them to be a part of committees, for input surveys, all those types of things,” Allen said. “If you’re not a bicyclist, you may not get it. But bicyclists are a very like-minded, niche group. They will want to register to be able to fill out these surveys.”
The community created by this registry, Allen said, will be able to give its opinions to a consultant recently hired by the department to create a report with suggestions to making a more bike-friendly campus. Transportation Services would not lose money by a lack of participation, but hopes its input could help the consultant better survey the campus, Allen said.
For Kevin Harnish, a senior civil engineering major, registration with any of the campus’s locations is too much of a hassle. He said he never has a problem finding an open bike rack and sees no reason to register.
“It’s kind of a pain. I don’t think it’s worth it,” he said. “It’s a pretty cheap bike, so I’m not too concerned about losing it.”
In fact, Harnish did have his bike impounded once for chaining it illegally outside of the North Campus Dining Hall.
“I came out and I saw some guys laughing at me. They had cut the lock, but I got it back,” he said.
Both Harnish and sophomore philosophy and business major Bonnie Han say a warning before having their bikes impounded is a motivator to register.
“That’s an incentive, definitely,” Han said moments after chaining her bike to a building’s window grate. “If you look outside of Jimenez, there are bikes on the railings, on the chain fence, on the lamp posts. … It’s really hard for bikers to find parking.”
The registration information will be available to both Transportation Services and University Police, most likely through web-based access, Dillon said. The Department of Public Safety will remain a “satellite location” where students can register, among other offices to be named later, he said.
jderbedr@umd.edu
