The Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation posted signs across campus Wednesday to inform bicyclists that chaining their bicycles to anything but a bike rack could result in the impoundment of their bicycles.
While the signs are new to the campus, the policy of impounding bicycles that are improperly parked is not.
Gary Graham, director of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation, told The Daily Reveille the policy has been on the books for quite some time, but it has rarely been enforced until now.
But Graham said the office hopes to decrease the number of bicycles that block handicap access ramps.
The fact that the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation has to enforce a policy to keep students from blocking handicap ramps is an embarrassment to the University.
Blocking a handicap ramp is such a gross abridgment of common courtesy that this policy should never have had to be implemented in the first place.
There is nothing wrong with riding a bicycle to class, and it has a number of benefits to the student body at large. It allows those who have to drive to class more opportunities to park. It is better for the environment. And it cuts down on traffic in a city that is infamous for its traffic problems.
There is no excuse, however, for blocking a handicap ramp because the rails alongside it, which are designed to keep people safe, provide a convenient place to chain a bicycle.
We ask the student body to help the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation to strongly regulate the newly enforced policy.
If you see someone chaining their bicycle in a place that could prove a physical danger to anyone who must make use of a handicap ramp, call them out on it. Ask them to move their bicycle to a place where it will not interfere with anyone’s safety.
To those who ride bicycles to class, take a moment to think about those who may not be able to ride a bicycle at all, let alone maneuver around any unnecessary obstacles.
Let us all try to make getting to class as convenient as possible.
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