Steps taken to curb theft

By Matt Hose
NEWS EDITOR

With the beginning of the Spring semester, USD installed new bike racks at several residential areas across campus.

Headed by the Office of Sustainability and the Changemaker Hub, the new bike racks come from the company Park-A-Bike. They were designed to make it easier for students to use U-locks to secure their bikes. These locks are much more difficult to break than cable locks.

The effort to install new bike racks was led by sophomore Mitchell Morley, who believes that if students use them correctly, the new racks should greatly curb the spike in bike thefts of last semester.
With these racks, Morley said, “You have no excuse not to use a U-lock. With the other racks it was difficult to position [a U-lock] to go through the bike frame. With these racks, it’s more difficult to not go through the frame.”

He also said the prices of U-locks should not be an excuse for students not to get one. The Torero store sells U-locks for $20, well under the market price, according to Morley.

Despite this, Morley said that the reason that many bikes were stolen wasn’t just because people used cable locks instead of U-locks. He said that he has seen bikes around campus that were locked with U-locks. However, some of these bikes were secured with the lock only securing the front wheel. The front wheel can easily be removed from the frame of the bike, which is the most valuable part. He said that the most important part of the bike to lock is instead the frame.

For him, raising awareness of the proper way to secure bikes is the most important step for the school to take. After that, he said that all students should register their bikes with public safety.

Students can do this by taking a picture of their entire bike and sending this picture along with the serial number, type of bike and brand to the Department of Public Safety (waiting to confirm this)
While he is happy with how quickly the changes have gone through at USD, Morley still believes that more improvements can be made. Next, he hopes to see the new bike racks at both the Student Life Pavilion and at all of the class buildings. He hopes to discuss these ideas with USD administration throughout the semester.