On the week of Sept. 9, student Eleanor Meuer ‘28 approached her bike, which was locked to a stop sign at SC, to ride home after her cross country practice. She discovered that her bike had been chained up to another student’s bike. 

Unable to ride home, she quickly called her father and LT history teacher William Meuer, describing the situation. Assuming it was a student prank, W. Meuer drove to SC and cut both bikes free. He was then informed that the administration had been chaining up bikes that were not properly locked in the bike racks as a way to deter students from locking their bikes in a spot where the bike might block pedestrian walkways and be a tripping hazard.

“The lack of bike racks has personally affected several other [students] and me; because there’s often a lack of space on the racks if you don’t get to school early enough, forcing you to lock your bike on a stop sign or pole,” E. Meuer said. “It was pretty annoying the day my bike got chained up because I had practice that ran a little later than usual, and I just wanted to bike home; instead, I had to deal with this issue.”

At SC there are currently 14 bike racks offered, Head of Security Gary Morrill said. There are four areas where the bike racks reside: the Field House entrance, the pool entrance, between the Corral and the main building, and the biggest area, outside of B-wing, across from the staff parking lot. For this school year, the administration bought two new, larger bike racks and got rid of the bike racks that were in poor condition. 

“We have four areas for bikes to be parked,” Morrill said. “We want [bikes] in those areas because they’re the least intrusive areas [and] would not inhibit anything else from parking in other places. Last year we had some bike racks that were along the sidewalk, close to the school, and the bikes would stick so far out that kids would have to walk off the sidewalks to get around the bikes. We tried to put them in an area that doesn’t inhibit any foot traffic and is safe for everyone.”

Over a three-day period, Morrill chained around 15-16 bikes that appeared to be locked to light posts. 

“If you drive a car and you illegally park [at SC], I have a license plate I can look up, or if you’re an LT employee, you have a sticker decal that [I] can look up [to identify you],” Morrill said. “I can go to whoever that person is and tell them to move their car. When you have that many bikes, you can’t identify on the cameras whose bike belongs to who, so I just decided to put some chains and locks on these bikes just to be able to make sure that I am able to talk to [the students] before they bike away. So it’s just about awareness of the fact that we’re providing you with these places to park your bikes and use them appropriately.”

After speaking with several students who had locked their bikes incorrectly and informing them about the safety hazards, the bike chaining had stopped, Morrill said. 

“How full the bike racks are at any given time of the year is really a seasonal issue,” W. Meuer said. “For students that live within a mile radius, I am a big proponent of biking or walking as it makes sense economically, environmentally, and from a mental and physical health standpoint.  Plus, if more [people commute by bike or walk, it] frees up more space on the roads and parking lots for people that absolutely must drive, and it means less congestion for the drivers.”