As Portola finally have four grades on campus, one thing is for certain: more students are biking and parking their bikes in the bike rack near the 300 building. The bike rack is filled far over capacity, with bikes locked to the fence surrounding the rack and bikes simply left in what should be walkways. 

Administration has tried various solutions, from asking students to park their bikes in the rack near the football field to threatening to lock up bikes that are not in an actual spot with a school lock. Unfortunately, students have overwhelmingly ignored these simple requests, and so further action is needed. On Sept. 13 during second period, there were 118 bikes in the 300’s rack, while there were only 50 bikes in the football rack. 

“If you drove your car to school, and there were no parking spaces, you wouldn’t park your car behind other cars blocking them in, and that’s what students are doing over here [in the bike rack],” campus control assistant Kathy Elgohary said.

The solution must come from one of two places. It can come from the students, as they can step up and act responsibly. It can also come from the administration as they could lock the bike rack near the 300s once it is full, and then open it before lunch. This would allow the administration to simply punish students who are locking their bikes to the fence, and would force everyone else to use the second bike rack.