{"id":118719,"date":"2020-10-20T13:21:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T11:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=118719"},"modified":"2026-01-20T10:24:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T09:24:43","slug":"abandoned-bikes-have-been-removed-from-woudestein-this-year-despite-the-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/10\/20\/abandoned-bikes-have-been-removed-from-woudestein-this-year-despite-the-virus\/","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned bikes have been removed from Woudestein this year, despite the virus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last summer, EUR\u2019s security team removed abandoned bicycles from the campus, as it does every year. \u201cMany international students leave their bikes here when they return to their home countries,\u201d a university spokesperson stated. \u201cThey make the campus look a lot less tidy.\u201d The majority of the 250 bikes that were removed ended up in landfill: \u2018Unfortunately, we can\u2019t take them anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmber Leijen<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Despite the coronavirus crisis, Erasmus University\u2019s security team went ahead and removed abandoned bikes from the campus, a university spokesperson told us. Why? Because having too many abandoned bikes around makes the campus look untidy. \u201cInternational students\u00a0leave their bikes here when they return to their home countries,\u201d an EUR spokesperson stated. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the university has been a little more accommodating this year than usual.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bikes were removed in the same way they generally are\u201d, EUR\u2019s spokesperson told us. \u201cMid June, security guards affixed small cards to the bikes, saying that the guards would remove the bike if the card were still affixed to the bike on 31 July. However, due to the coronavirus crisis, they didn\u2019t actually start removing the bikes until mid-August.\u201d<\/p>\n

The removal action was only announced on campus, by means of the cards affixed to the bikes. No warning was given online or on social media, according to the spokesperson. As a result, staff and students who had been working or studying from home for months and were nowhere near their bikes when the security guards affixed the cards did not know that their bicycles would be removed if they failed to remove the cards. The university acknowledges that this was not the best idea, and has committed to communicating removal actions online from now on. \u201cWe\u2019ll change that, starting from this academic year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landfill, thrift shop, bike shop<\/h2>

For what it\u2019s worth: compared with previous years, not many bikes were removed this summer, according to EUR\u2019s spokesperson. In normal summers, the security team will typically fill up three containers with abandoned bikes. This summer, the security team only removed one container\u2019s worth of bikes from the campus. One container generally holds about 250 bikes. \u201cAnd some of the bikes were rented bikes. We returned those to the Kralingse Zoom metro stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

After having been collected in mid-August, the bikes remained in storage on the Woudestein Campus until late August, on the off chance that bike owners looking for their bikes would contact the security guards. After that, the bikes were taken to landfill, as they are every year.<\/p>\n

The university was unable to get rid of the bikes in any other way. As EUR\u2019s spokesperson admitted, \u201cThat is a pity. We tried to donate the bikes to bike shops or thrift shops, but they don\u2019t want them. So unfortunately, we had no other choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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