Don’t Take Away My Bike (at Berkeley)

UC Berkeley crackdown has bicyclists fuming

Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 13, 2010

UC Berkeley freshman Devin Shoop got a $220 ticket in September. His crime: locking his bicycle to a railing instead of a bike rack…

As he tells it, Shoop locked his old mountain bike to a rail outside Cal’s Recreational Sports Facility on Bancroft Way on Sept. 17, as was his habit when the bike rack was full. He made sure his bike wasn’t blocking the path, then ducked into the gym for a few hours. He came out to find a boot on his bike with a sign saying “Bike Impounded.” There was a number to call…

California’s law requiring the same traffic fines for cars and bikes isn’t new. But at UC Berkeley, where campus police have vigorously enforced the laws at a time of unprecedented tuition hikes, students are furious. They’ve started a Facebook page for critics of the fines, they’ve done bicycle civil disobedience, and they’ve written letters to campus police…

“Our main interest is to ensure the safety of pedestrians. We’re not involved in setting fines,” said Lt. Alex Yao of the University of California police, who have nabbed 41 percent more bad bikers this semester than during the same period last year: 103, up from 73. Campus police say they didn’t know the fines were so high until students began complaining. Now they plan to look for a less expensive legal code to enforce their campus dismount zone, said Capt. Margo Bennett of the UC Police Department. UC Berkeley doesn’t see a penny of the proceeds from citations, Yao said. The money goes to city, county and state coffers…

Full article at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/12/BAV51GL1PU.DTL

Seems like bicycles and academia used to be more compatible:

UPDATE: The LA Times caught on to this story several days later: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-berkeley-bikes-20101218,0,6374249.story