The weather was gorgeous, and her workload had yet to pile up, but junior Bianca Ceralvo still dreaded going to class last week.

A generally relaxing first week of class became difficult with the new central pedestrian zone. The policy, enforced by the Department of Public Safety, prohibits riding and parking bicycles — as well as rollerblades and skateboards — in the arcades of the Main Quad, an area commonly frequented by bikers in previous years.

“This whole week was annoying,” said Ceralvo, who called the new policy “ludicrous” and “frustrating.”

While some students expressed their disgust with the new bike ban, Sergeant Al James of the Department of Public Safety said patrol officers on duty reported the policy had been implemented effectively so far.

“The students are abiding by it,” he said.

Refusing to abide by the new policy, Ceralvo described a different story. She claims that she has been approached by patrol officers, whom she compared to hall monitors, and has found a yellow flier stapled to her bicycle every time she has parked under the arcades.

“It’s annoying,” she said. “It wastes a lot of paper, and no one ever reads it anyway.”

In response, Ceralvo has stapled a piece of paper to her bike that reads, “Stop wasting paper!”

“I’m going to bike in the arcades as much as possible at least until they start ticketing,” she said. “I just want to enjoy it while I can, even though people are screeching in my ear.”

James said that the police will continue its educational campaign throughout the month to ensure that campus members are aware of the changes.

“We have had people giving out fliers and talking to people personally in the Quad,” he said.

Although violators will not receive fines during the introductory six-week period of this policy, bikes in the Quad in November will be confiscated and violators will have to pay an administrative service fee to retrieve their bicycles.

According to James, the administration is concerned with the safety of both bikers and pedestrians. The officer added that, with the policy, the University hopes to reduce the number of bicycle accidents. Although James admitted that he had not seen statistics on the frequency of bike accidents in the arcade areas, he did remark that accidents occur all over campus.

The policy, developed by a steering committee of senior staff and administrators, drew Ceralvo’s ire for failing to take student input into account. She also speculated that the policy was implemented not for safety reasons but for aesthetic purposes — so that Main Quad would not be cluttered with students riding their bicycles.

“They say it’s for safety reasons, but they don’t tell us how much safer it may or may not make the Quad,” she said.

Sophomore Josh Resa agreed that he found the safety argument less than convincing.

“I never once came close to running into anyone biking under the archways,” he said.

Some students have said that if the University is serious about reducing bicycle injuries, it should focus on the “Intersection of Death” — the crossing of Lasuen Mall and Escondido Road. James also admitted that the new policy in the arcades could potentially increase traffic in other areas already crowded with bikers.

“If they’re not riding on the arcades, they would probably have to be on the pedestrian malls,” he said. “We don’t know how those areas are going to be impacted.”