Most students know that bikes, skateboards and rollerblades are prohibited in the Pedestrian Zone, but may not realize that parking their bikes in the Zone can warrant a police citation. Since initiating a no-wheels policy in the Main Quad arcades in August 2006, the Stanford Police — teaming up with a group of hired students — has been putting warning flyers on bikes parked under the arcades.

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The Department of Public Safety (DPS) is cracking down on bikes parked in improper areas by attaching warning flyers to such bikes. The Student Special Events Patrol, formed by the DPS this year, assists with the flyering efforts. The Pedestrian Zone prohibits bikes, skateboards and rollerblades. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/8206
Maggie Skortcheva

The Department of Public Safety (DPS) is cracking down on bikes parked in improper areas by attaching warning flyers to such bikes. The Student Special Events Patrol, formed by the DPS this year, assists with the flyering efforts. The Pedestrian Zone prohibits bikes, skateboards and rollerblades.

Bill Larson, a services administrator at the Department of Public Safety (DPS), is spearheading the Student Special Events Patrol (SSEP). The program, new this year, offers students jobs starting at $12 per hour to help DPS enforce parking and event security on campus.

“All we do is put flyers on the bicycles that are parked in violation of policy, such as in the arcade,” Larson said. “On an average business day, we flyer about 10 to 15 bikes.

“Overall there has been a considerable compliance and acceptance of the parking policies,” he added. “There has been no significant increase or decrease in the number of parking violations.”

Some students who have received this warning complain that a lack of bike racks is the reason for parking infractions.

However, Carolyn Helmke, the bicycle program coordinator at Parking and Transportation Services (P&TS), insisted that there are enough bike racks on campus.

“In the majority of cases students are not willing to walk the extra 25 or 50 feet to the nearest bike rack,” she said. “People expect the racks to be right next to the entrance of a building, but that’s not feasible with buildings that hold 500 students.”

Helmke discouraged students from blocking entrances or locking their bikes to handicap rails.

“When students lock their bikes to the handicap rails, which is especially common in FloMo, many disabled students can’t use the rail to move around,” she said. “Students should simply consider walking a little bit to a rack.”

In addition to putting flyers on illegally parked bikes, SSEP hands out flyers to people biking through the arcades. But not everyone is cited.

“I’ve ridden through the Main Quad arcades multiple times and never been cited,” said Kelly Bonney-Ache ‘11. “I guess it’s [hit-or-miss].”

Other students were surprised that DPS is enforcing the parking policies.

“I knew that there were places you can’t park, but I didn’t know that they actually enforced it,” said Jeff Pidlaoan ‘11. “There’s a big gap between rules and enforcement.”