BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

so are you not allowed to visit ppu on a bicycle?

I encourage any alumni to contact them at annualfund@pointpark.edu and specify why donations will be withheld for the foreseeable future.

The link you provided shows a 3-rivers rack. Didn't tax money fund these? What the heck is up with that?

I have a University of Pittsburgh sticker on my bike, think that works? Do I need a different sticker for every bike rack I visit? Insane.

Even if their story is true, the smart solution would be more bike racks.

I wonder what the cost of their new policy is? I wonder how many bike racks could have been installed instead.

it pains me to see this notice on a three rivers rack. i believe they bought them, but still. we launched these as a PUBLIC bike rack, so when someone sees one, they think "i can park my bike here"

is there anyone from point park on the board?

Wow, thanks for pointing that out. I always assume that any 3 Rivers rack is public.

I'm calling shenanigans on the idea that the police are going around cutting locks on bikes locked up on public signs/fences/whatever. I can imagine them doing that with some rust monster, or if someone is foolish enough to block a thoroughfare with their bike, but I don't think they care at all about bikes that are minding their own business next to trees, signs, and parking meters. I've locked up at such locations when cops were standing there and never had anyone say anything to me.

Is the 3 rivers rack design copyrighted? Maybe they can be dissuaded from enforcment on these.

When I park on the PP racks near 3rd and Wood, there are 8 or 9 bikes there. I think some of them have been there since last century. Maybe they are trying to figure out how to legitimately take them away.

especially in the article it talks about how there are remnants of stolen bikes like wheels locked up. this is silly cause all of this is under the guise of "protecting bikes from theft." but if they really wanted to help with that, they could educate students to not lock their bike from the front wheel when you have a quick release. or tell them to use a u lock. i have yet to hear of a bike that was properly locked with a u lock get stolen in this town.

Maybe they are trying to figure out how to legitimately take them away. gee how about asking one of the other 50 universities in town. tag the bike with a not saying that it needs to be removed in 30 days or else...

so , i might be wrong, but if you install something on a public sidewalk where there is public right of way and easment, doesnt it essentially become fair for the public to use it?

I could see how having dozens of non-registered / stickerless bikes firmly chained into campus bike racks could present a problem. Someone should add some legitimacy to their concerns.

You mean, lock up all my non-registered bikes with locks like this?

This doesn't seem any different than having their own parking garage downtown and validating use for PPU students, faculty and staff.

Freedom isn't free.

@dwillen: I'm betting that your non-registered bikes are too good to sacrifice for this cause. Maybe something more along the lines of that perpetual onslaught of broken-down huffy type bikes that are always flowing into free ride and ending up in the scrap bin.

As an alumni of PPU, I can say that those racks down there are littered with abandoned bikes. The fact that they couldn't just remove bikes that have been chained up and never moved for more than one semester burns my brisket though.

Those racks were always full, and I had a handful of friends that always commuted in by bike. Even I did. This strikes me as yet another boneheaded campus decision by Point Park University - and believe me, there's a long, long list of them.

slaops, the difference is these are in public spaces. Not a parking garage that you have to go through some sort control gate to get in.

It would be more like me putting a garbage can that I bought outside on a public sidewalk then yelling at people for putting trash in it.

If they want private bike racks, they need put them somewhere that isnt a public space.

i don't know if they are on the public thruway or not. sloaps, your analogy doesn't work because there is no where downtown where cars can park for free. and every place that you can park has a little sign that says how much it is. and if you're in a car and don't like what that sign says, you can't just park on something that doesn't have a sign.

it's more like how if you are driving across pennsylvania in a blue car then all of the sudden you drive through a small town where blue cars are illegal - the only town in the whole state. they don't tell you it's illegal when you enter the town, but they pull you over anyway and give you a ticket. only here, you get your lock cut and you think your bike is stolen and some point park "public safety" worker tosses it on top of a pile of other bikes that they cut off and you're stuck trying to track down your bike all because you met your point park university friend for coffee.

I'd like to update the downtown Bike Parking map to reflect that these are no longer "public" racks." Can anyone confirm their location for me? I tried to find "Alumni Park" on the map on the PPU website, but I couldn't find it.

before you do that, can't you say, from spc, that this is counter productive to the region's transportation goals?

btw, serious inquiry i'm not being snippy and realized it might come off that way

I am thinking of that angle. I also don;t like that they suggest that folks witnessing a bike snatch contact the campus police. There is no guarantee that the bike belongs to a PPU student, we don't know how that affects overall theft reports citywide, etc. But, I can't really follow up with their Public Safety folks without knowing where the rack in question is. If it is the one I am thinking of, it is in a bay off the sidewalk, and may well be on property owned by the University. In which case, they may be within their rights. No one can tell them, for example, that the rack INSIDE Lawrence Hall has to be public..... But, even if that is the case, they've only had 10 biek registrations at the time of article. So who IS using the racks? And how do we replace those "public" spaces which were apparently heavily utilized (perhaps for bike storage, perhaps for bike parking...)

its true we can't tell them what they can and can't do on their property, but there are a lot of legal things people can do - it doesn't mean it makes sense - especially in places where the racks are located within the context of all of downtown. you never know if you are on their campus or not. is the subway on their campus? i don't know

cmu has a clearly defined campus, students abandoning bikes, etc, with no stupid policy, but they also realize that people who may not go to the university may also happen to visit

i think it's ironic that i just went to the Active Allegheny public meeting here only a few weeks ago. it was the county's vision on how to get more people out on their bikes and feet more. i rode my bike to the meeting. i used their racks.

what if the policy was in place then? would i have to go to the third floor of some unknown building to get some ugly sticker that i don't want to put on my bike?

i have a feeling that this is one of those "gee we didn't think this through" decisions and suggest calling their Public Safety Department at (412) 392-3960 to tell them how stupid it is.

At a minimum, they should tag a bike as "non-PPU" and leave it there 24 hours before removal. A luggage tag on a cable tie would cost 10 cents and cover >95% of our objections.

Just a thought on a similar situation, in Oakland somehow Pitt has been able to "claim" sections of on-street, parallel parking, and make it permit parking. So, they don't pay taxes in the first place, they have taken meter revenue away from the city, and are now able to charge for it themselves, right?

Who exactly gave that the thumbs up?

I can confirm that the bike racks in question are right now where the people in this Google Street View image are standing.

Check it out.

This strikes me as something they are trying to do for their students, but a piece of paper on a rack and a notice in the student hand book won't permanently keep the ignorant from locking up their bikes to a bike rack on a sidewalk.

do it for the students. fine. but don't threaten to cut off peoples bikes for parking there. there's a sergio leone film festival there this weekend!!! are they going to cut people's bikes who go to it?