The Paly administration is receiving complaints about the locking of the newly built bike cage and their inaccessibility during school hours.

Many students feel that locking the cage during school hours restricts them from accessing their bikes as they please.

"It’s not very accessible because your bike is completely locked inside that cage during school hours," sophomore Rajan Narang said. "Last week, I wanted to bike home during my prep period but my bike was out of my reach."

Another complaint deals with the major bike jams that form right before and after school due to the single entrance to the bike cage. With a major influx of bikers coming into the cages students have to wait to get through the entrance.

"During past days I have been close to tardy in first period because of the disorder near the entrance of the cages," sophomore Kushal Tantry said. "People are pushing to get in and out all at the same time and it causes a major block which just hurts everyone."

The administration built the bike cage in early April in response to increasing reports of bike thefts on the Paly campus. According to assistant principal Doug Walker, the administration plans to keep the bike cage. In response to the complaints of both students and parents, the administration is making efforts to be more flexible with the hours of the bike cage and procedures for opening them.

"We have made the hours in which the cage are locked to be 8:45 a.m. to 2:10 p.m. when school ends," Walker said. "In order to be more flexible with people who are coming in late or who have a first period prep, we lock the cage at the beginning of second period."

In order to deal with individual needs to enter and exit the cage during school hours, the administration has given a key to each of the two custodians. If a student needs to get their bike, they can go to the Tower Building, where an official will contact one of the custodians and ask them to open the cage. From there, the student will walk to the cage and meet up with the custodian who will open them up for them.

"The administration is trying to be as flexible as possible, and we will deal with each individual case as it comes up," Walker said.

In order to increase efficiency of this system, the administration will soon have eight copies of the key instead of the two copies on campus right now, according to Walker.

Although there are a lot of complaints, some Paly students do see the benefit of the bike cages and appreciate the administration’s actions.

"My bike had gotten stolen many times, but not gotten stolen since, even though I left it here [at Paly] until 9 p.m. It would have usually been stolen or at least vandalized," sophomore Peter Hughes said.

For many Paly students. the bike cage still seem like a waste.

"They serve no purpose because anyone who is bent on stealing a bike is going to do it," sophomore Henry Becker said. "This bike cage is not going to stop them, and no students want to use it any ways."