At the corner of Morewood and Ellsworth Avenues near my house in Shadyside, I've been riding past a bike that's locked to a street sign and has been there for over a month now. The inevitable happened, I guess, and as of a week ago, someone took the rear wheel off, and disconnected the front wheel from the fork, though the U-lock still held it and the chain to the street sign. There were some bike parts (quick release bar) scattered on the sidewalk the last I saw.
I'm not going to say it exactly breaks my heart to see that but it is becoming a bit of an eyesore. Is there any resource that could be a central clearinghouse for this situation where you have stripped-down or evidently abandoned bikes? I see them occasionally, and think (a) that an abandoned bike frame is taking up space that could be occupied by a working bike and (b) it projects a sense to non-bikers or casual bikers and others that the area is unsafe (not the case in this area, unless you're leaving a bike locked in a public space for months on end, which is kind of dumb to begin with) or other bike-negative thoughts. And it's an eyesore.
I'm thinking the police could come by with some super heavy duty bolt cutters, haul what's left of the bike to some stolen property depot, and if nobody claims it within a given time frame (one year?) they get donated to Free Ride or scrapped.
Anyone else with me?
Also, yesterday afternoon I was riding south-eastbound on Penn Avenue just before Whitfield Street and a guy in a car passed me with about three inches to spare. Catching up to him at the next red light (of course) he ignored me at first but I tapped on his window and gave him a fairly incoherent version of the "Way too close! Next time you're going to really hurt someone. Or maybe they'll smash one of your windows in with a U-lock!" rant. He sheepishly said he was sorry, but I'm not sure he meant it. Is the consensus that this kind of immediate confrontation works? It sure felt kind of good.
-- Ian
I've seen that bike! It was quite sad.
On the topic of abandoned bikes, there are quite a few that I think have been chained to the bike racks by Barco Law School for months, if not a year. At least one of them is missing a wheel.
there is a bike up by the new dorms behind the Pete Basketball arena at Pitt ...a purpleish Magna that has been there for three years....no lie...3 years. There are sections of cement below it stained from rust run off, both tires are flat...one rim is bent along with a crank arm.... I mean I know Magna is not the best bike but sheesh.....
yeah, i saw that one on ellsworth. it breaksameheart. it's a sweet bike, and i wonder what happened that someone would do that.
has anyone seen the abandoned univega hanging on the side of the Birmingham Bridge sidewalk? next time you cross, at the southern end of the arch, look to your right and youll see it hanging there
I rode by just a little while ago and maybe the owner is reading these postings, or maybe the folks at Winchester Thurston made a call, because it's now gone. It was there yesterday afternoon but not this morning. Weird--even the quick-release bar for the front wheel is cleaned up off the sidewalk. But in any case, there is no shortage of other vandalized/abandoned bikes in town. Do we have a systematic solution for these?
How about the bike-pgh abandoned bike task force.
Works like this:
1. Abandoned bike is identified by someone.
2. Authorized bike-pgh member goes to the bike, documents its location with a written description and photo. Tagged with a waterproof notice saying that the bike has been deemed abandoned and has 1 month to be removed, call x number for more info.
3. Bike is filed with an expiration date of 1 month.
4. Once the expiration date is achieved, the bike is re-inspected. If it exists in the same position and the tag is still on the bike, it is filed for removal.
5. The appropriate removal device is acquired, the bike is freed and donated to freeride.
Robjdlc's task force looks great, but I'd want to run this by somebody official from the city or the police, otherwise it seems to me we just become self-authorizing bike thieves. Subjectively, there's a big difference, of course, but if someone wanted to make a stink about it, someone carting away one of these could get in some trouble.
Alternatively, we could just turn it into art. Like this guy:
http://www.jenbekman.com/glassie/
Edited to add:
I feel particularly sorry for poor #11
AND
If Salvador Dali had a bike, it would look like #12
When I lived in Davis they would (in the summer, when all the students were gone) staple notices to the [1000s of] bikes that looked abandoned. If the notice was still there next time they went around, they'd cut it off and put it up for auction ( http://taps.ucdavis.edu/bicycle/auctions/ ). I'm pretty sure if you had registered your bike at any point they would make every effort to contact you prior to the auction. Most people seem to graduate and leave their garage-sale-bikes to rot on campus.
I've seen the local businesses do the same thing, put notices on the bikes in front of their store and cut them away after the waiting time is up. No idea what happens to them then.
It seems like there is some ordinance that allows for this to take place. I wonder if there is a similar abandoned property law for PA? I'm guessing it would be easier to do away with the bikes if they're locked on private property, rather than a sidewalk?
Ieverhart, on the ranting at drivers? My impression is that it does no good. I think others here agee.
If he had opened his window and you explained calmly, politely, and quietly how what he did was dangerous, then maybe it would.
If he apologized, then maybe he wasn't totally anti-bike or anything. I'm guessing he might describe it as "yeah, I messed up a little. Then this guy started road-raging..."
Hard to do right, in this all-too-common situation. I know there are still times when I shout at drivers when a wave and a smile would do.
Mick
There was a thread on here long ago about a bike on penn at 39th. It was a decent road bike with STI's and nice 9 speed stuff. Somebody took the wheels to Kraynicks for safe keeping.
I walked down after a few weeks of people posting about it and looked, and the sign the bike was locked to was not fastened to the ground. I simply lifted the sign out of the ground, and took the bike home. I posted a few places telling people I did so.
The owner of the biek called me and picked it up. And keep this in mind when you think you are doing something good for soembody: HE WAS PISSED. He acted like it was a huge inconvenience to come to my house (2 blocks away) and then go to Kraynicks. He was mad that people stole his stuff.
Whatever, let it die.
Kind of like abandoned vehicles on state roads. The state police will mark the vehicle with a sticker or in their daily log. Then if after several days of remaining along side the road, the state will impound the vehicle. In our case, we should unhitch the bike and impound it at bikepgh HQ.
While I hate to resurrect an old thread, is the official verdict that there is nothing we can do about these? There is a Huffy in the covered Highmark bike parking downtown that is taking up some prime real estate.
There's also a spraypainted blue bike outside Gateway 4 that looks abandoned.
Maybe 311 is a good call on this?
you can surely do something. it might just take a while. if an abandoned bike is taking up space, and it's clearly abandoned, you can get someone to remove it. it might just take a little while to make sure it is "clearly abandoned."
as examples, my special lady friend's building gave some notice a few months back that they would remove bikes that were in disrepair (read: haven't been ridden and we haven't heard from you) from their bike room, and a friend of mine was able to convince cmu police a few years back to let him loot a few bikes that had been locked to racks for a few months.
dunno about 311, but pittsburgh police or the building should be able to help you out.
+ 1 bike-pgh abandoned bike task force.
My friend found an abandoned bike in Oakland, an Old Raleigh, he put a note on it, watched it for a month an a half. No one called him, no one ever came and got the bike so he went there with a pair of pliers and recycled it. It had one of those "bike?" locks you get at a dollar store. I think you could have pried it apart with a pencil. or at least a CMU student could do it with a fork.
