The University is doing a great job of nickel-and-diming its students with a barrage of proposed new fees. The latest proposal comes courtesy of the Department of Public Safety and would create a nonsensical $5 bicycle registration for all bikes on campus. The proposed fee contradicts every green-friendly transportation message the University has been pushing for the past few years and is a complete waste of the Department of Public Safety’s time.
The threat of constant fees, coupled with rising tuition, makes it appear as though the University is taking measures designed to wring our wallets dry.
Students, faculty and staff who choose to ride bikes to campus shouldn’t be punished with fees for their environmentally conscious decision. By raising the cost of riding bicycles on campus, students will be discouraged from cycling to school and may be forced to find alternate modes of transportation.
Patrons of the bus system, walkers and bikers are all doing their part to help keep traffic congestion away from the University and pollution at bay. Using bicycles is a pollution-free alternative to driving and taking the bus. Forcing students to register their bicycles for a fee discourages environmentally sound transportation.
Another pitfall of the proposed fee is that DPS officers will have to take the time to enforce the bicycle registration fees. That regulation will take manpower away from other, more important DPS duties, such as keeping our campus safe and issuing parking tickets. DPS will either have to hire more people to keep tabs on bike registration scofflaws or else force current officers to add the duties to their already busy schedules.
If DPS so desperately needs the revenue from the bike fees, it should take it up with the administration and not try to push the burden onto the backs of the already overtaxed students. Although the bicycle registration fee is small in itself, combined with all of the other proposed increases, it adds up fast.
University’s bike fee plan needs to hit the dusty trail
Daily Emerald
March 13, 2002
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