DOTS installs double-decker bike racks

As part of an ongoing effort to create a more bike-friendly campus, officials made space for 80 more cyclists to park their bikes in Mowatt Lane Parking Garage this year.

Department of Transportation Services maintenance crews installed the $30,000 double-decker bike racks on the first floor of the garage in mid-September as part of the department's continuing initiative to increase bike use and minimize the number of cars on the campus this semester. The department also stationed a covered bike rack in the newly opened Oakland Hall, and officials are exploring the possibility of installing another double-decker near the animal sciences building.

According to DOTS Assistant Director Beverly Malone, bike ridership on the campus rose 30 percent in the past year — a number that suggests the initiative has succeeded, she said.

"We're hoping that means that fewer people will feel the need to bring their cars," she said.

The new double-decker racks maximize the number of spaces without compromising car space, Malone said, and only five car spaces were sacrificed to make room for them. Last year, 6 percent of bikes were parked under garages or other forms of shelter, and this year that number has jumped to 17 or 18 percent, she said.

"We've been working really hard in the last year to increase biking," Malone said, "Part of that is just providing ample parking."

After considering several manufacturers, DOTS officials chose to install Dero Bike Racks because they were the simplest to operate, according to Malone.

"We really did a lot of research to make sure they were easy to use," she said. "We really felt it was the best system on the market."

And Malone said officials chose the Mowatt Lane garage as a prime location to serve residents in the nearby South Campus Commons buildings, adding the garage serves as a subtle, secluded hideaway for the bike racks.

"A garage also provides a kind of location that's not so much a part of the landscape," Malone said.

Senior neurophysiology major Jiwei Sheng — who has used the racks since their debut — said the new spaces are both aesthetically pleasing and easy to use.

"I think they look really cool — the way that it's set up, I think it's more space efficient," Sheng said, adding that the new racks were a welcome refuge from the other overpopulated spaces in the garage.

But other bikers were unimpressed by the new racks and said they had no desire to use them.

"Why would I want to make it any more difficult?" senior criminology major Donovan Lee said. "The whole point of riding a bike is because it's fast — why would I go through that extra hassle?"

And senior mechanical engineering major Brent Snyder said the racks looked too complicated to operate on a daily basis.

"It's a pain in the ass," he said.

foley@umdbk.com