I have laughed when I've seen "abandoned" tags on bikes like yours - clearly parked within the last couple of hours. Don't worry; they aren't going to come along and take your bike within another few hours if the tag appears, so I just tear it off and go on my way.
(The UW, on the other hand actually has numbers on the tags and has them geo-coded. If they remove someone's bike, there is a tag number and location to trace it and allow the owner to more easily recover the bike. It also means that the owner can call Transportation Services with the number and say, "No, that bike isn't abandoned," and Transportation Services can check it off their list. I think that's what Chuck Strawser told me. If I got anything seriously wrong, he can correct me.) Back to the city process.... I think someone has been assigned to tag ALL bikes in a certain area on one afternoon, regardless of whether the bike is abandoned or not. Then the same person, or maybe someone else, comes back a few days or week later to collect all the bikes that still have tags. That's the only explanation I can think of for this strange tagging behavior. But at least the city is trying to do something about abandoned bikes. Bikes used to sit at racks, clearly abandoned, until they were removed twice a year: Once for Maxwell Street Days, and one for Halloween. I used to complain that by allowing bikes to take up valuable rack space, the city and the business districts were saying, "We don't think bike parking is all that important, or surely not as important as car parking." Can you imagine the uproar if 10 percent of the car parking spaces on any block were occupied by abandoned cars? Robbie Webber Transportation Policy Analyst State Smart Transportation Initiative www.ssti.us 608-263-9984 (o) 608-225-0002 (c) [email protected] On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 3:39 PM, Donna Magdalina <[email protected]>wrote: > Abandoned bikes -- or perhaps sometimes it's resident storage on street > bike racks --have keep the rack in front of Thorpes at Schenks Corners > nearly full the entire last year. You can see after snowstorms most or all > are not used. > > Last week I locked onto the Lorraine Condos' nicely shoveled bike racks, > 100 block of W. Wash and came back three hours later to find an abandoned > bike sticker on my bike. It had snowed that morning, with my bike clearly > added after the snowfall, plus I have a wicker basket that obviously has > not spent the winter outdoors. I don't understand this convoluted pattern > of enforcement when it does finally occur. > > I like the hashtag. > > > On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 12:18 PM, Robbie Webber > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Saw this article today, and thought maybe Madison could use a similar >> program. Abandoned bikes that take up perfectly good, usable, needed spots >> in busy areas of the city is one of my pet peeves. >> *The Big City Bike Parking Negative Feedback Loop* >> >> http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2014/03/big-city-bike-parking-negative-feedback-loop/8596/ >> >> Madison's definition of "abandoned" is not as strict as that in New York. >> I think we all know what an abandoned bike looks like: chain off and >> rusted, bent wheel, leaves/cobwebs/litter in the spokes, stripped, sad, and >> lonely. I think the city actually has a maximum time that a bike can be >> left in the same spot on the public right of way. >> >> What we need for this project is a hashtag - maybe #deadpedalMSN - and >> someone to forward the info to the city. Oh, yeah, and we need the city to >> promptly take action. >> >> Although I think you can probably use the Report a Problem link on the >> city's website - which actually has a choice of "abandoned >> bike<https://www.cityofmadison.com/reportaproblem/abandonedbicycle.cfm>" >> - taking a photo and tagging it just seems much easier. And a shorter >> number of field to fill out. >> >> Robbie Webber >> Transportation Policy Analyst >> State Smart Transportation Initiative >> www.ssti.us >> 608-263-9984 (o) >> [email protected] >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Bikies mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org >> >> >
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