Policy infraction leads to bike confiscation on campus

Across campus, MSU Facility Services has been confiscating bicycles parked in violation of a transportation policy updated just over three years ago.

This policy is outlined in Section 1000.20 of MSU’s Personal Transportation Device (PTD) Policy which can be found on MSU’s website. 

For bicycles, it states that “leaning or locking to trees, landscaping, railings, fences, posts, signs, fire hydrants, trash receptacles and other objects or facilities not designed or intended for PTD parking” qualifies as parking violations. 

Further, parking violations can lead to the impoundment of these vehicles by any MSU police officer, or other person authorized specifically by the Chief of Police, as outlined by Section 1100.00 of the PTD policy. This policy has been in effect since March 4, 2020, according to MSU’s website.

Sophomore and economics major Isaac Kostecky said, “I ride my bike to campus every day, and I didn’t know [the policy enforcement] was a thing until I saw it happening.” Kostecky went on to reference an incident in which he saw a bike being removed with bolt cutters from a lamppost outside Roberts Hall.

Another incident was cited by senior film and photography student Lauren Fletcher in which her bike was confiscated from the spot she normally leaves it, attached to a seldom-used guardrail outside the Visual Communications Building. “My bike was gone, but the one next to it was still there. Just my helmet and bike lock on the ground where it was,” she said.

After contacting University Police (UP), Fletcher discovered her bike had been impounded. “The spokesperson said I wasn’t parked at a designated bike rack, but I was confused because professors had also been using the railing to park their bikes,” she said.

“I have 200 dollars in damages to my bike, and I need a new bike lock,” Fletcher said, she claimed the damages were caused by poor treatment of the bicycle during impoundment.

This incident prompted Fletcher to meet with the Office of the Dean of Students to advocate for more bike racks on campus. This has been an ongoing process and one that requires further action, according to Fletcher.

MSU Police Department Patrol Lieutenant Thomas Luhrsen said the overarching purpose of these policies is to keep the campus looking nice. “It creates unsightliness, and we put bike racks all over campus to prevent this,” he said.

Impounded bikes are stored at the parking impound lot at the UP office on campus, according to Luhrsen. The owner of the impounded vehicle must pay a ten-dollar fine and another ten-dollar impound fee, ending in a twenty-dollar total to remove an impounded bicycle, according to Luhrsen. UPD authorities  also do not pay for the bike locks that may have to be cut in the confiscation process, he said.

“We aren’t cracking down any harder this year than others,” Luhrsen said. Additionally, higher infraction and confiscation numbers are not connected to increasing freshman class sizes either, but to the time of year, according to him. 

“When the weather’s nice like this we see a spike [in infractions], then there’s almost nothing during the winter, then another spike in the spring,” he said.

When asked if the student population increases correlate to increases in infractions, Luhrsen said the people who usually have their bikes impounded are not freshmen. 

“The students who have their bikes confiscated most often are the students who had gotten used to parking their bicycles in the same spot for years without knowing about the policy,” Luhrsen said.

Policies on bike confiscation can be found at montana.edu/policy under the personal transportation device policy section.