Bikes still attached to some bike racks outside the College of Communication after today will be impounded, as Parking and Transportation Services begins an initiative to replace racks across campus.
The anonymous signs on the Whitis Avenue racks read, "Rack Removal Notice. All bikes must be moved off rack by 12/04/07 or they will be impounded."
Owners must pay the $10 impound fee and sign a release form to recover impounded bikes.
Sam Cortez, bicycle coordinator for Parking and Transportation Services, said he did not know why the signs weren't attributed to PTS and acknowledged that students might think the signs are a practical joke. An official PTS sticker with a phone number was added to the signs Monday night.
With school still in session and finals in the coming weeks, bike owners outside the Jesse H. Jones Communication Center called the rack removal an inconvenience.
"I park here four times a day and have problems with the removal," said Carter Francis, a radio-television-film senior. "The only other bike racks are on the other side of the building."
Francis had not seen the removal sign until a Daily Texan reporter pointed it out, but said he figured it was one of many signs asking students to remove bikes before the holiday break.
The signs have been posted since the end of November and are usually covered by parked bikes. PTS sends out mass e-mails about bike removal for home football games and street closures but did not send an e-mail noting the rack removal, which is part of a campus-wide initiative to hold more bikes and make the bikes safer. It will be easier to secure the bike frame and wheel to the new racks, Cortez said.
While bicyclists support safer racks, the said they don't support the timing of this removal.
Cortez said he "supposed the bike racks could have been replaced when students weren't in class" during the upcoming holiday break and didn't know how long it would take to add new the racks - which he called a necessity.
"There's a need for more bike spaces, and the new racks can hold up to 30 bikes, as opposed to a maximum of 10 bikes on the current racks," he said.
There were 10 bikes attached to the racks Monday afternoon, with space for additional ones.
Students said they could just secure their bikes to posts of handicap parking signs, meters and other campus signs lined along Whitis Avenue - like they do when racks are full - but this is a violation, according to the PTS Web site.
"Bicycles secured to anything other than a bicycle rack are considered improperly parked," according to its Web site, and any bicycle considered improperly parked may be impounded at the owner's expense.
The removal signs do not suggest alternative racks to park bikes at, but Cortez said there are "a lot of racks in the Littlefield area."
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