UC Santa Barbara, in partnership with the UC Police Department, has begun enforcing bike restrictions for students biking outside of designated bike paths by stopping bikers and issuing citations with $40 fines. 

UCPD Enforcement has been most prevalent between the ILP and the Davidson Library, where no bike path exists. Nexus file photo

This enforcement began at the start of the fall quarter. Students were not informed about the enforcement practices until a university-wide email was sent from the Office of the Vice Chancellor on Oct. 3, around a week after the quarter began. In the email, students were directed to UCSB’s bike safety section of the Student Wellbeing website, which includes brief mentions of citations as consequences for breaking campus bike safety rules, but does not mention any information about potential fines. 

Enforcement has been most prevalent between the Interactive Learning Pavilion (ILP) and the Davidson Library, where no bike path exists. In the past week, several UC Police Department (UCPD) officers have been stationed near the ILP to tell students to walk their bikes. 

The ILP opened in spring of 2023 as the University’s newest building and was constructed on top of an existing bike path. The ILP’s original construction plans included a designated bike path and bike parking lot, both of which were never built, forcing students to bike on the street to get around the ILP. 

“Relocation of the campus bike path and associated bicycle parking are integrated into the project design to minimize potential conflicts between pedestrians and bicyclists. The design incorporates traffic circles to slow bike traffic, and provides pedestrian refuge areas for crossing the bike path during peak times,” the construction plan states. 

This raised a safety concern for many students, including the Associated Students Bike Committee (ASBC), a student organization dedicated to improving campus bike safety. In an Instagram post on Nov. 20, 2024, ASBC shared their concerns with the ILP’s construction over a bike path. 

“We recognize the significant, bike-related safety issues that have been and are currently being posed to our community due to the outcome of the construction of the ILP, and are aware of the great inconveniences and dangers associated with the current infrastructure in the area,” the post read. 

On Jan. 20 ASBC posted an ILP bike path update that said they began the process of designing a replacement bike path between the ILP and the library. 

Associated Students (A.S.) Internal Vice President and fourth-year history and global studies double major Enri Lala is working with ASBC and university administration to construct a bike path. Lala says after many months of negotiating, the administration is now listening to bike path demands, and he is now waiting for cost estimates from the Office of Budget & Planning. 

Lala said that students are not responsible for the fact that they do not have access to a bike path and that it is a “purely campus administration decision.” Lala also does not believe that students should be fined as part of the enforcement measures and that the money from the fines should be deposited in a designated account to fund the bike path. 

Lala said he believes that this new bike enforcement is part of a larger issue of a lack of communication between UCPD and the student body. During his three years in the association, Lala stated that he does not remember any instance of a UCPD representative attending an A.S. Senate meeting, which is section B-2 of every weekly agenda. 

“I think the communication has been — at least from my perspective as a senator and the beginning of my executive term — next to non-existent,” Lala said. “We hope that not to be the case on this issue specifically, and hopefully that lasts even once we’ve hopefully resolved it.”

Lala also said that Isla Vista feels substantially more dangerous than his freshman year. According to the 2025 UCSB Annual Security & Fire Safety Report, crime in I.V. has steadily increased between 2022 and 2024, despite crime rates decreasing nationwide. Lala said he feels that the administration and UCPD should focus their efforts on crime prevention in I.V. and not on bike enforcement. 

“We all heard of the just unspeakable assaults at the end of summer going into fall this very year. There have been crashes, one that I witnessed myself last night,” Lala said. “And this just leaves you to wonder, at a time when there are students who really perceive an increase in the risk of being around in I.V., is the thing to invest in really more enforcement of bikes on campus?”

A version of this article appeared on p. 1 of the Oct. 9, 2025 print edition of the Daily Nexus.