Monday, October 3, 2011

Yet Another Bike Post

Biking to class on Thursday at North Quad, I realized that there was absolutely nowhere to lock my bike up - all the stands were taken, as were the supports for the canopy designed to protect the bikes from rain. It's not the first time that bike parking has been tough at NQ - pretty much every time I head over there I have to look hard for a spot. It was however the first time that I chained my bike to a railing, although I did my best to keep it out of pedestrians' way.

Or not, according to U-M Public Safety. As I was about to leave I discovered this noticed circled around my handlebars. It's the first time I'd ever seen one, so it took me a minute to realize that it's not actually a citation, but rather a notice that they would have impounded my bike if I didn't move in in 48 hours. Obviously that wasn't an issue, but I was fairly irritated at the prospect of it. Yes, it was parked illegally - but it wasn't in anyone's way (I would argue), and it's not like I had much of a choice. A better solution would be to install more bike stands, no? Or maybe catch the person who's allegedly been committing sexual assault? Maybe that's not quite fair, but the idea of a "watch out in 48 hours!" citation does seem to be a non-productive solution.

6 comments:

  1. I think campus really lakes bike parking, and in particular, covered bike parking. I see numerous bikes locked to trees, etc. by Mary Markley and if you get to Dana after 845 am, pretty much all the bike racks, trees and fences are in use.

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  2. The University of Michigan might want to think about updating their warning notice to reflect the fact that the city of Ann Arbor no longer offers bicycle registration.

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  3. Folks can make their opinions on this known to DPS at public.safety@umich.edu.

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  4. Also, there is apparently a form to request more bike parking: http://pts.umich.edu/forms/bike_parking_request.pdf which is under purview of PTS.

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  5. @MT2TT, thanks for the link to the request form.

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  6. They could also stand to remove some of the bikes that have clearly been abandoned. There was a few locked outside the union, tires flat, for the entire year I worked there.

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