When senior Anna Schoenfelder tried to retrieve her bicycle from a tree near South Campus Commons Building 1 Friday, she noticed something was missing: her bike.
“I wasn’t even sure [what happened] initially,” the cellular biology and English major said. “I was just like, ‘Where’s my bike?’ And then I saw the lock.”
Officials cut the locks of about six bikes for the first time this year near Commons 1 and 2 to prevent damage to trees and poles and to enforce fire-safety codes prohibiting bikes attached to railings, Associate Director of Facilities for Commons and Courtyards Dave Hawley said.
University Courtyards and Commons residents, however, have complained that bike racks are often overcrowded and filled with abandoned bikes, forcing students to look for alternate parking.
“It’s almost like giving someone a permit for their car but not giving them a parking space,” junior journalism major Christian Kloc, a Courtyards resident, said.
Officials mark unregistered or improperly parked bikes with white removal notices around the handlebars, Hawley said. They then call the owners of registered bikes to notify them that their bikes will be removed. After 24 to 48 hours, officials cut the bike locks, Hawley said. Students have 30 days to claim their bikes from the office before they are donated to charity.
Schoenfelder said her bike was parked for about 30 minutes, and she said she did not receive a phone call.
Officials monitor bike parking, Hawley said, and will add more racks if needed. A new bike rack has already been ordered for Commons 1 and officials plan to tag unregistered bikes four times this year, up from twice last year, in an effort to free up parking, he added.
“One of the biggest complaints I do get from residents is not enough room in bike racks,” Hawley said.
But the issue is often convenience, he said.
“It’s not necessarily that there’s not enough room in the racks,” Hawley said. “The ones near the entrances fill up first. Then [students] have to start moving their bikes farther out. And some people don’t want to do that.”
One rack behind Commons 2 had only one bike in it, he said.
“I just think that there’s an inherent problem,” Schoenfelder said, “because there’s tons of people with bikes, and there’s lots of people with nice bikes. So it doesn’t make sense to not have a place to lock your bikes up near the building.”
But the bikes taking up the racks often look abandoned, junior physical education major Chris Luensman said.
“Some of the bikes are old and rusty,” Luensman said. “The lock is rusted. The bike is rusted. The tires are flat. There’s no question that the bike has gone anywhere in a while.”
Outside of Courtyards Wednesday night, there were several bikes with missing or bent wheels, missing seats or rusted chains.
But officials still have to go through the standard removal procedure, Hawley said.
“It’s better safe than sorry,” he said. “I really don’t want to cut somebody’s bike. … We’re cutting off anywhere from a $20 to an $80 lock.”
In Courtyards, some residents have started parking their bikes on their balconies, a violation of the lease, to avoid the racks.
“The bike rack’s not big enough for my tire, so I have a hard time fitting it in the rack,” senior history major Kevin Valdez said. “Even if I did want to put it out there, I couldn’t because the whole thing is full.”
Hawley said he had not received any complaints about the racks being too small to fit bike tires. Courtyards has not yet cracked down on the balcony parking, which is a fire hazard, because officials need to evaluate adding more racks, Hawley said.
“You want to make sure you have everyone in their rooms and happy and all that stuff, and then you get to the bike racks,” he said.
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