In most educational institutions in the U.S., the facility of using the bike room as a place for bike storage is free of charge to faculty, staff and graduate students. The presence of bicycles in places other than the on the racks of the bike room for bike storage are considered a hindrance. However, certain policies have been put in place and strictly enforced to ensure the efficient operation of the bike room as a bike storage facility:

- All bikes in the bike room used as bike storage should be hung vertically in the racks. Bikes stored on the floor or leaned against a wall of this bike storage facility would be removed without informing the owner
- Overnight storage of bikes in the bike room is not accepted and bikes that are found stored in the bike room continuously for 2 nights in a row without use, will be promptly removed. Students/ staff who have their bikes so removed from the bike storage facility more than once in a semester, would be asked to return their key to the bike room

The following requirements should also be fulfilled by users of bike storage rooms in colleges:
- Cyclists should, at all times, carry a lock with them in case the racks of the bike storage are full and they would be required to use racks located outside the bike storage facility
- Since no thefts take place inside a bike room, one should refrain from locking the bike if it is inside the bike room. This makes it difficult to shift bikes from the bike storage area when necessary
- In order to reduce the problem of improper use of the bike room, legitimate users of this bike storage facility are required to label their bikes with a login or their name. In instances where issues arise regarding the bike or the use of the bike in the bike storage area, the owner could be contacted prior to removing the bike from the bike storage faclity. The label should be put in an easily visible place such as the top of the handlebar or tube - In order make slots available both in the upper racks as well as the lower racks of the bike storage at all times, bikers are requested to distribute bikes across the upper and lower racks of the bike storage area whenever possible. This way slots on both levels of bike storage remain open for parkers with special needs

Policies mentioned above have been developed owing to the abuses of the bike room for bike storage that have taken place in colleges. These simple, yet reasonable policies for bike storage are formulated with the expectation that the bike room users would police themselves. Room users are reminded that the use of a bike room as a bike storage facility is a privilege and not a right and that space in the bike storage room, being scarce, must be shared responsibly.