Hi Jeff,
You might want to read this, which we have in Louisville pertaining to abandoned bikes. https://louisvilleky.gov/government/bike-louisville/abandoned-bicycle-policy It's essentially a city code that allows removal of an abandoned bike as long as its in the flow of public right of way. Looks like they give the owner 14 days notice to remove it and that's it. The department of public works manages this and our shop and a couple of organizations receive bikes occasionally from them.
Good luck!
Jane Halliday Falls City Community BikeWorks Louisville KY
-----Original Message----- From: Stephen Andruski swandruski@gmail.com To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Sent: Tue, Jun 21, 2016 11:52 am Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Abandoned Bike Ordinance?
In the US I think this would need to be handled as a law or City ordinance. But even then I can envision a lot of complaints. People take their personal property rights VERY seriously. Universities are generally not considered "public property" and so they can confiscate abandoned bikes on their property.
I think getting the City to institute such a law would be useful. I know of a case where a neighborhood group asked the police to deal with bikes abandoned and locked to street signs in their neighborhood. The police said they couldn't do anything and the neighborhood eventually dealt with it themselves. At some point an abandoned bike is not just an eye-sore, but a potential safety issue for children in the area.
Sorry I can't be more helpful.
Steve Andruski The Rockville Bike Hub Rockville MD
On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 11:07 AM, Jean-François Caron jfcaron3@gmail.com wrote:
I only have experience with a Canadian university about this. As far as I know there is no specific enabling law for removing abandoned bicycles, so they just have their own policy about tagging bikes before removal.
It might be easier to convince your police & policy-people that there is no need for an actual law, rather than trying to get one put in place. I mean, there is no law that says bikes on public bike racks are inviolable private property of their owners, right? As long as the procedure is respectful (in terms of notice before removal, possibility of recovery, etc), there should be few/no complaints.
Jean-François
On Jun 21, 2016, at 09:58 , Jeff DeQuattro jdequattro@deltabikeproject.org wrote:
Greetings!
Through the Delta Bike Project in Mobile, Alabama we are working with city leaders and the Mobile Police Department to update certain ordinances that have neglected to meet the needs of our city.
One of those ordinances we seek to create is an ordinance that allows the City/Police to recover abandoned bicycles that have been chained up for some (unknown) extended amount of time. We hope that the Delta Bike Project could be the recipient of those bikes for inclusion into our Time is Money Program. It's also a way to clear up our very limited amount of bike parking - something we're also working on through various fundraisers and agreements of understanding to install fixit stations and bike racks.
Are there examples from this group of ordinances in your city that allow public safety officials or others to recover abandoned bikes? Do you have examples of that language that you can share? Also, are there other similar ordinances that are good to accompany these?
We are lucky to have the ear of the City Leaders and the Police Department, so we would be ever grateful for feedback on this issues.
Thank you,
Jeff