We would like to bring to your attention a recent NYU policy regarding the bike shed that serves the interests of a few users and ignores the needs of the majority of its users to maintain a healthy life-style.

This new policy mandates a registration process and fee of $96 ($48 for students) to be charged on a yearly basis for every user. According to Robert Zick of the Security Department the sole purpose of this fee is to deter individuals who leave their bikes there indefinitely or abandon them. Until now, use of the bike shed has been free of charge based on obtaining security access to the bike shed.

As we understand it, this deterrence mechanism is meant to alleviate the problem of overcrowding that is particularly bothersome to commuters who rely on biking to get to work. However in the process, the fee also targets those of us (students, postdocs, faculty, and other staff) who live in medical center housing and use our bikes for leisure and exercise.
Without access to the bike shed we are left with no alternative to storing out bikes due to limited space in our studio and one-bedroom apartments. Due to this lack of alternatives, most will begrudgingly pay the yearly fee which provides no solution to the overcrowding problem in the bike shed as a free yearly registration would be equally successful at ridding the shed of abandoned bikes.
Direct communication with the head of security, Bob Zick has revealed that this registration fee will not be used to enlarge the bike shed or maintain its use, thus this fee is not providing the end user with any service at all, and is merely discouraging hospital employees and students from trying to maintain a healthy life-style.
We believe the decision to mandate a registration fee was made by commuters and did not include any communication with medical centre residents.
We do have an alternative solution to this problem that may help to satisfy both the commuters and residents of the medical centre community.
A yearly registration process will help to eliminate the bike shed from abandoned bikes that accumulate over time, however we should have a designated bike rack for commuters so they do not struggle to find parking every morning. This privilege will come at the cost of the 96$ yearly fee and those bikes will be appropriate tagged. For those of us who dont pay the fee, we can share the remaining spaces throughout the bike shed. Since this is coupled to not have a guaranteed spot, no fee should be charged. The collected fees should also be put toward expanding the bike shed so that we might encourage more commuting and foster a healthy workplace and lifestyle. which would be line with the healthy lifestyle Incentive Program implemented by the Langone Medical Centre.
While a 96$ yearly fee may seem trivial to the faculty, I assure you that to students and postdoctoral fellows who struggle each month to pay their living expenses and in these times of financial uncertainty, that this fee is not trivial to all us.

Due to this poorly publicized policy (no signs were even placed in the Skirball residence) we hope we can delay the implementation of this policy, so that everyones interests can be considered and all users of the bike-shed have the opportunity to register their bikes this fall.


Thank you for your time.