Last week, the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation began its Bike Roundup by tagging abandoned bicycles, and it will impound unclaimed bikes today.
Manager of Enforcement Division of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation Dabney Hayes said the office seeks to pick up abandoned bikes from campus and doesn’t intend to seize bikes that are in use.
The office tags bikes to be picked up that aren’t placed on bike racks and have been left near unoccupied residential halls.
The tags serve as a notice to students who may own the bikes to contact the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation to leave the bike alone.
“Our only goal is to remove bikes that aren’t being used from campus,” Hayes explained. “All [bike owners] have to do is let us know the bike isn’t abandoned, and we won’t lock it up.”
Haynes said a student with a tagged bike should e-mail the office with the bike’s tag’s number, his or her phone number and the color and make of the bike, and it will remain untouched. These directions should be on the tag as well.
Beginning last year, the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation began rounding up bikes during the summer because of the scope of the task.
“Typically, we hold a bike round up between the end of the summer and beginning of fall semester,” Haynes explained. “Because it’s such a big process, we start earlier in the summer.”
The office has tagged nearly 140 bikes and has received numerous e-mails from students about the tags, but Haynes said not nearly enough bikes are picked up.
This marks only part of the roundup, which will see another series of taggings in two weeks. In addition, the office hosts a second roundup between the fall and spring semesters.
“It’s really a problem, and it’s a waste – it just seems such a shame,” Haynes said. “They obviously cost money, and they literally are abandoned.”
Haynes said she speculates some bikes are left over the summer by students who plan to pick them up when they return for school in the fall.
As a result, the SG bike auction of impounded abandoned bikes is held later in the semester for these situations.
“When they come back and realize [their bikes are] gone, they contact us,” Haynes said. “We wait a good while after the semester starts to have the sale to let those students pick up their bikes.”
 
____ Contact Austen Krantz at [email protected]