They come to campus shiny and new, anxious to cover miles of sidewalks and shortcuts to class. But for many, their days of rolling along Boyd Street, the South Oval and pit-stopping at Bizzell Memorial Library end in abandonment.
Physical Plant doesn't have an estimate of bikes that remain unclaimed, locked to the 300 to 325 bicycle racks across campus with flat tires, mangled wheels, broken chains, missing parts and missing owners. Despite a first-place award in the education category for beautification and landscaping in a statewide environmental competition, abandoned bicycles are an ugly sight for some.
"It's a damn shame," said Luke Landis, University College freshman. "I ride my bike to school every day, and some of these bikes have been laying here for six months. I guess people just don't care because the bikes they ride are so cheap."
Landis often parks his bike on the east side of Dale Hall between a faded orange, red and yellow Huffy mountain bike missing both wheels and a blue Lagrande mountain bike with a mangled wheel rim, half of a tire and a rusty chain.
Locking his bike on a crowded rack, Zev Trachtenberg, philosophy professor, also noticed the abandoned bicycles.
"I suspect the owners are former students who are no longer in town," Trachtenberg said. "I think the university should remove them and dispose of them. Maybe donate the parts to Goodwill or some other organization."
Abandoned bicycles depreciate OU's clean campus, especially in comparison to the rest of the landscape, Trachtenberg said.
OU does not have an official policy regarding abandoned bicycles. However, Physical Plant employees periodically tag these bikes with a notice that the bike will be removed on a particular date, said Burr Millsap, associate vice president of Administrative Affairs. After about two weeks, the bicycles are removed and taken to an undisclosed storage area where the Physical Plant holds them for about six months.
"Infrequently, we will conduct an open sale of bikes that are serviceable," Millsap said. "For those that are not, we transfer the parts and pieces to a scrap metal dealer."
Outside Sarkeys Energy Center, there are 14 abandoned bicycles with flat tires and missing parts as well as a blue Roadmaster mountain bike missing handlebars and both wheels. Two more abandoned bikes have been shoved into the bushes outside Carson Engineering Center to make room for regular riders, while six more abandoned bicycles surround Oklahoma Memorial Union.
"It doesn't really bother me unless the bikes are really taking up space," said Taylor Barazal, University College freshman. "It's their bike and their property, so I don't really care what they do with it."
Since fall 2003, Barazal has passed abandoned bicycles like the nine that line the rack on the east side of Nielsen Hall. Two of these bikes are connected by a string of yellow caution tape and mark the sidewalk with scattered bicycle parts.
To retrieve one of the 25 abandoned bicycles currently in storage, owners should contact Physical Plant at 325-6953, Millsap said. The owner must have proof of ownership, be able to operate the lock or identify a unique or unusual characteristic about the bike. Proof of ownership would include a sales receipt showing the correct serial number for the bike.
For those owners who abandoned bicycles, there is no punishment for leaving a bike behind, though it might be taken away when Physical Plant employees once again sweep the campus for two-wheeled skeletons.
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