The Texas A&M University Transportation Services Bicycle Rules and Regulations Bicycle Sub-Committee has drafted a proposal to install a user fee on on-campus bicyclists.
According to the draft, all on-campus bicyclists would pay a non-refundable $10 fee to register their bicycle for two years to ride and park them on campus. Permits would not be transferable from one user to another, and the permit holder would be responsible for all fines, fees, citations and impounding that may be associated with the permit.
The main source of citation would be related to various parking offenses, with each occurrence resulting in a $20 fine. Bikes with three or more fines would be subject to impoundment, and bikes not claimed within 120 days would stand to be sold at an auction.
“If you ride a bike on campus, you will have to take part in it. There is no option, you have to pay the fee,” said Logan Nichols, student services chair of the student senate, bicycle subcommittee member and junior agricultural economics major.
Nichols said the current draft of the proposal might not become the final resolution, but that a change in the bicycle program is necessary.
“When you walk through campus you see congestion all throughout campus. Blocker, MSC Breezeway, West Campus and Zachry; there are bikes everywhere and that’s a problem that needs to be solved,” Nichols said.
Even though another student fee is potentially looming, the objective of the draft is to promote the well being of the campus community, and eventually provide benefits for bicyclists.
Nichols said the registration program would be especially beneficial for bicycle theft recovery because if a stolen bike were recovered, it would be easy to identify the original owner and return it.
“Other reasons for the fee implementation is to pay for overhead costs such as paying a staff salary for someone to oversee the program, costs of new computer software and the cost to print the permits themselves,” Nichols said.
Cody Vasut, speaker of the student senate, said that because the current draft is unofficial and not final, the proposal is still subject to changes. He said the student fee might be eliminated or that the University may choose to pay for the fee by other means.
“It’s safe to say that anything is up in the air now,” Vasut said. “Anything is subject to change.”
The Bicycle Sub-Committee will meet again Tuesday to finalize the proposal. Once approved, the proposal will be sponsored by the Transportation Department and sent to the student senate and other various governing bodies for final approval.
“I believe that Transportation Services would like to implement this for the fall semester of 2009,” Nichols said.
Express your opinionLogan Nichols encourages all student feedback and can be reached at [email protected]