OBERLIN, Ohio -- City council quickly and quietly passed a new ordinance Tuesday night designed to keep downtown sidewalks clear of improperly parked bicycles. The new law allows police to confiscate any bikes deemed a hazard.

The ordinance is less harsh than the one proposed over the summer. Police said there will be a lengthy "education period" on the new law and enforcement won't start until April.

Riders will be forbidden to lock or tether their bikes to anything on the sidewalk, except for designated bike racks and hitching posts in the downtown area. Under the ordinance, riders will be allowed to leave their bicycles unlocked on parts of the sidewalks not in the main walking path. However, bikes will be confiscated if deemed hazardous to pedestrians.

"We're talking about the central right of way of the sidewalks, the part where people walk," said Councilman Bryan Burgess. "People can leave the bicycle on the sidewalk against a building, not blocking the door of course. They can't lock it, in case the bicycle has to be moved."

Police officers will determine if a bike is in the wrong place.

"If a bicycle is a danger, and in the way of people trying to walk, it will be confiscated and taken to the police station," said Police Chief Juan Torres. "People can claim the bike and pay a $20 fine. The fines increase with multiple offenses."

Torres said police will confiscate bicycles as a last resort, noting he hopes that education about the new law will solve the problem.

No one in the audience Tuesday night spoke up against the ordinance, which was proposed after complaints about senior citizens having trouble walking downtown because of the bicycles left on the sidewalks.

Kathie Linehan said an elderly friend of hers with vision and walking difficulties suffered severe consequences.

"He was walking downtown and he tripped over a bike, on two occasions," she said. "He ended up in the emergency room one time with a cut leg."

The new ordinance is a milder version of the original one, which would have banned all bicycles from being left anywhere except locked in one of the 400 or so designated spaces in bike racks around the college town.

The law will now allow bicycles to be left along the three-foot brick buffer zone on College Street near Tappan Square. And, bicycles can always be left on grassy areas or lawns.

Oberlin already has a long-standing ordinance banning people from riding bicycles on the sidewalk.

Much of the problem area with bikes is along College Street and Main Street, where coffee shops and restaurants attract tourists as well as students from Oberlin College.

City Manager Salvatore Talarico has said the city and private businesses have enough bicycle racks around town to accommodate bikers, but people need to use them. Councilmen said Tuesday that more racks are planned for the near future.