Abandoned bikes in shared bike lockers

[shootingstar]

Well, the strata management in our building, cleared out the unclaimed bikes that have been stored for years in our caged and shared bike locker areas. They gave residents over 1 month to reconfirm their bike(s) ownership & parking spot(s).

There was a process..which I won't get into. But I had to make sure my bikes were 'protected' and identified as still usable and not forgotten.

Whew!!

Yes, this can be a controversial move. A problem that does develop in shared residential bike lockers. It happened in a previous condo building where I lived.

[Biciclista]

Where my DH works it was the same thing. 80% of the available bike parking was taken up by abandoned bikes. He was really happy when they hauled them away.

[shootingstar]

Where my DH works it was the same thing. 80% of the available bike parking was taken up by abandoned bikes. He was really happy when they hauled them away.

He was in a commercial building? If it was, how strange that people leave their bikes behind there for months and months with dust building up. It's interesting for us folks who don't have a car, how other people just leave behind their lovely bike for months in a commercial building where they work. It's like a throwaway thing for them.

But not in our household.

In the last condo building I lived in, the residents got overly defensive and no bikes were cleaned out at all. It was a mess. It doesn't need to be.

[pfunk12]

We have a similar situation in the condo association where I live. We have 2 storage units for bikes and they are filled to capacity. I would say that the majority of the bikes are never used. Several residents who bike regularly have mentioned to me that they are frustrated with the situation because you can barely get your bike in the room. It's a real struggle. I'm not really sure what the answer is. Every year or so, the building manager will send out a notice to all the residents to claim their bikes. The unclaimed bikes are sold at an auction and the money from the sale and unsold bikes are given to charity. But what usually happens is that the majority of the bikes go back in the storage unit and remain unused. I think people have good intentions. They end up with a really good bike for $25 and they intend to use it but it goes back to storage to collect dust and get rusty.

[Owlie]

There are a couple abandoned bikes on the racks around campus. I know a few of them are the result of keys being lost--campus security is really unwilling to cut locks because of bike theft, unless you can prove that the bike is registered in your name with security. At the end of the year, they put out a notice that all bikes that are left by a date in the middle of May will be sold for charity. There are usually several on the racks by the upper class dorms--I think they belonged to seniors who used them to get to and from class and no longer want them. I wonder what happened to the dark red Schwinn with the taco-ed wheel...

[7rider]

My garage at work is a county garage. There are bikes (and a few have been removed) that have been here for YEARS. Literally. We old timers have watched the tires go flat and the bikes rust.
We frequently get summer interns and fellows working here. They have no money, get a cheap beater bike to use while they're here, and at the end of their assignment, move to parts unknown, leaving the bike behind.
Our bike team recently reclaimed 12 of 20 lockers which had been abandoned and started managing their use to keep them occupied by cyclists.

[staceysue]

Hey - if anybody finds any good abandoned road bikes, I'll take one for my son!

[Eden]

Parking space isn't so much an issue where I work - we have several bike lockers and a few more racks, so unless there is construction and the bikes have to be moved, I don't think anyone has been fretting too much over abandoned ones...

Lockers in the locker room OTOH are in rather short supply. People do get evicted from there. Every once in a while an email notice goes out to confirm that you are using the locker or turn in the key. If you don't confirm, your stuff gets put in a plastic bag and put out....

One way I heard about to tell if someone is using a bike and just hasn't got back to you (if you've put up a notice) is to put a sticker over the keyhole of the lock. If the sticker is broken or removed you know someone has unlocked the bike (or at least paid some attention to it)

[Biciclista]

a young coworker had this in his apartment complex. People move and leave their bikes behind. The management decided to get rid of the unclaimed bikes and he got a beautiful like new 20-25 year old road bike for $50. the stubbies were still on the tires. At my husband's office building, the bikes left behind were garbage.

[pfunk12]

When I go in the bike storage unit behind my condo, I think about the women on TE who would drool over some of the bikes. It's sad because I'm sure someone out there would use them and take care of them.

[sgtiger]

I'm amazed at all the abandoned bikes that get auctioned off at the UW garage sale every year. Most of them are junkers, but some of them are actually decent bikes. I've know a couple of people who were lucky enough to get a good deal on one.