Those rectangular slips of white paper that grace the windshields of cars on campus will soon be branching out to handle bars and banana seats.

The Department of Public Safety will begin enforcing the rules of illegal bike parking next spring, said Doug Houghton, program coordinator for DPS.

Houghton said DPS officials want to stop students from illegally locking their bikes to poles, trees and wheelchair ramp areas.

“We’ve tried to be customer friendly, … but we’ve got to the point where illegal bike parking has become such an issue that we’ll have to start impounding the bikes,” Houghton said.

He said it is still too soon to say exactly what will be done if students still choose to lock their bikes to places other than bike racks. Officials will draw up new bicycle rules this fall.

“In the spring I believe you’ll see stepped-up enforcement,” Houghton said.

Some things DPS officials are looking into include ticketing, impounding and putting a lock on illegally parked bikes.

“Students would have to pay to have the lock removed. If not removed in a certain period of time their lock would be sawed off and the bike would be impounded,” he said. “Then students would realize it costs more just to replace the lock for their bike.”

Rick Fox, campus landscape architect, said the measures are necessary.

“We spend a good amount of the students’ money each year to plant trees around campus, and we have a hard time keeping those trees around,” Fox said, adding that locking bikes to trees often harms or kills the plant.

“Part of the problem is if a student would just turn around in a full circle, they would see a bike rack,” he said. “Instead they try and get as close as possible and lock their bike onto a tree.”

DPS officials have been lax on bicycle parking rules in the past because there were not enough usable bike racks for students, and they didn’t have a place to store the impounded bikes.

Iowa State is investing $50,000 a year in the new “bike loop” racks to serve the needs of the students. In the last four years DPS has installed nearly 2,000 new racks with. Officials say the campus needs about 4,500 more racks.