Students who park their bikes on wheelchair ramps of any building on campus risk impoundment.

Many students who ride their bikes to the Physics Building have been taking that risk.

According to Iowa State regulations, it is illegal to block an entrance for the handicapped. That includes hand rails because they are part of the handicap entrance to Physics Hall.

Department of Public Safety Director Loras Jaeger said DPS officials will remove any bicycle that impedes the handicapped from entering a building.

“We have a responsibility to people who are disabled,” Jaeger said.

DPS seizes anywhere from 175-200 bikes a year. Jaeger said officers are sent in response to complaints about bicycles chained to hand rails, fences and trees. The most recent was a raid last week in front of Physics Hall.

This semester officers have made more trips to Physics Hall than any other site on campus. But owners of those bikes often show up before the bikes are impounded, Jaeger said.

Heather Canady, a sophomore in interior design, parks her bike on the ramp every Tuesday and Thursday. She said she didn’t realize that the ramp was for the handicapped or that there were bike racks on the east side of the building.

A sign on the south doors of the hall warns bicycle owners: “Bicycles attached to hand railing will be removed and impounded.” The building’s supervisor, Larry Hanft, said it is “laziness and selfishness to put those bikes where handicapped people need access.”

Hanft said he receives complaints from people in wheelchairs who, when trying to get up the ramp, are hit by handle bars sticking out and cannot reach the button to open the automatic doors.

But some, like mechanical engineering sophomore Matthew Sawhill, say they have no choice. “There is no where else to park, nothing really close,” he said.

Hanft said that dozens of bike slots go unused everyday between Physics and Science I halls, the nearest bike racks. There are also bike racks across Osborn Drive at LeBaron Hall.

“If there are not enough bike racks students need to talk to campus services,” Hanft said. He added that there will never be racks in front of the building because the traffic leaves mud that is tracked into the building.

Other interviewed students with bicycles parked on the Physics Hall ramp asked that they not be named in this story and several apologized for parking on the ramp. They removed their bikes.

Atanasoff Hall, Carver Hall, Gilman Hall and Black Engineering have all had complaints that resulted in bicycle removal.

“It is a campus problem,” Hanft said, “people aren’t very considerate.”

Hanft suggested that special locks should be placed on bicycles illegally chained on ramps to prevent the owners from leaving before paying a fine.

After 14 days, if the bicycle has not been removed, it would be impounded.

“The person who parks their bike there is bad,” Hanft said, “but the person who sees it and doesn’t say anything is just as much to blame.”