The policies are in place and are strictly enforced for one simple reason: the bike room is not really a bike room. It is a Computer Services room, part of which has been temporarily allocated for bike users. The presence of bikes anywhere other than on the racks may be considered a hindrance to access to the resources in the rest of the bike room as well as the central networking room behind the bike room. Therefore the following policy applies:

No bikes may be kept in the bike room unless they are hung vertically in the racks. Bikes that are stored on the floor or leaned against a wall will be removed.

Moreover, because there are fewer racks than commuting cyclists, if you place your bike in the bike room when you arrive at Sitterson then it is fully expected that you will remove your bike from the bike room when you leave for the day. Overnight storage of bikes in the bike room is unacceptable. In particular, the following policy applies:

Bikes that are stored in the bike room continuously for 2 nights or longer without use will be removed.

If your bike is removed from the bike room more than once in a semester because of a violation of either of the above policies, then you will be asked to return your key to the bike room.

We also ask the following:

• Keep a bike lock in Sitterson. Cyclists should have a lock available in case the racks are full. If the racks are full please use one of the public racks outside Sitterson. There are racks available on the east side of Sitterson Hall (side towards Phillips Hall).

• Do not lock your bike in the bike room. Locking makes it difficult to move bikes, which is sometimes appropriate. We have never had a theft from the bike room.

• Label your bike. To reduce the problem of improper use of the bike room, we ask users to label their bikes with their login or name. If there is a problem with your bike or with your use of the bike room and your bike is labeled, then we will always attempt to contact you before removing your bike. The label should be put some place where it will be easy to spot, such as the top of the handlebar or top tube.

• Distribute bikes across upper and lower racks. Please distribute bikes across the upper and lower racks whenever possible, so that some upper and some lower bike racks remain open. Various people need or desire to hang their bikes on an upper or lower rack.

• Get on the bike-room mail alias. We use a mailman email list bike-room to inform the users of this room of things that affect them, such as when Computer Services requires the removal of bikes to facilitate work in the room. If you have access to this room, you must be on the mail alias bike-room. If you are on the bike-room email list, then you receive a reminder with your mail-list password at the beginning of every month. If you need to be added to the email list, either send e-mail to Murray Anderegg (anderegg at cs.unc.edu ?, or to (bike-room-subscribe at cs.unc.edu ?.

Finally... These policies were developed because there have been abuses of the bike room in the past. The policies above are simple and reasonable and it is expected that bike room users will police themselves. In particular, we expect that all users use the bike room in good faith. Examples of not using the bike room in good faith include:

• Interpreting the policy on overnight storage of bikes as saying that it's OK to routinely store bikes overnight as long as you don't do it for two nights in a row.

• Interpreting the policy on labeling of bikes as implying that it's OK to violate other policies if your bike is labeled because that way you'll get a warning first.

Feel free to send suggestions and/or complaints to Murray Anderegg (anderegg at cs.unc.edu ).