OU is replacing racks that leave bikes vulnerable to thieves with ones that are designed to be safer and provide more spaces.

The university is spending $18,500 to replace bike racks outside of Monnet Hall ($1,325), Burton Hall ($9,600) and Copeland Hall ($7,575), said Taylor Bitting, vice chairman of the Student Congress Problems and Projects Committee.

The new racks should effectively double the number of bikes that can be locked outside the buildings, he said.

The current racks are vulnerable to bike thieves because their low placement means many locks can only reach through the front wheel. A thief could leave the wheel and take the bike, said Jonathan Vann, chairman of the Student Congress Problems and Projects Committee.

The new racks allow bike owners to use U-shaped locks to affix the bike’s frame to the higher rack, making it impossible to steal the bike by dismantling the wheel.

UOSA contributed $1,000 to the project, Vann said. The OU Bike Initiative, sponsored by the office of Nick Hathaway, executive vice president and vice president of administrative and finance, paid the remainder. The Problems and Projects Committee had decided to make the racks a priority last fall, when they discovered OU administration had the same intent.

“The administration was already going to replace many of the racks anyway,” Bitting said.

Bitting said the committee next will try to get racks replaced south of Lindsey Street, where many freshmen park their bikes to be near the dorms, he said.

“It’s a pretty terrible way to start your career at OU, by having your bicycle stolen,” Bitting said.