Students who found warnings on their bicycles Friday morning that police would aggressively step up bike law enforcement seem to have been the victims of a prank. The notices purported to come from the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (DPS), but police officials denied issuing any such warnings.

The colorful notices, hundreds of which littered campus Friday morning, claimed that new rules and regulations would be coming into effect as of Apr. 27.

The notice stated, “because of an increase in recent bicycle accidents, Stanford University administration in conjunction with the Stanford Department of Public Saftey [sic] have imposed more stringent regulations and policies on bicycle traffic laws. Out of concern for public saftey [sic] the Stanford police will be less tolerant towards bicyclists in violation of traffic laws.”

Specifically, the notice claimed that fines for bicycle-related traffic violations would be doubled between Apr. 27 and May 3. It also offered a bulleted list of traffic laws, including one that read “bicycle helmets must be worn at all times,” which set off a flood of messages to campus email lists.

DPS Lt. Larry St. Denis said the notices were not issued by the DPS and that he was unaware of any change in policy. St. Denis also added that the DPS does not have the power to increase traffic fines, although he did not rule out the possibility that the notices had been posted by another agency.

St. Denis also told The Daily that some of the information contained in the notice did not reflect current traffic laws.

“Bicycle helmets are only mandatory if you’re under 18,” he said.

The notice also claimed that “headphones must not be worn during transit on trafficked streets,” which is only partially correct. According to St. Denis, a bicyclist cannot have headphones in both ears, but wearing a listening device in one ear is not against the law.

St. Denis added that the two other items on the notice — “front and rear bicycle lights must be attached and turned on before dusk” and “bicycles must stop at all designated stop signs and yield to oncoming traffic” — are legally accurate.