CTA took my bike, and I almost didn’t find out. Help me change this for others.
I recently locked my bike to a bus stop pole in front of the Fullerton el station. When I returned the following night, the bike was gone— and my U-bolt sat on the ground, sawed in two.
I reported the theft to the police and to my insurance agency. To be fair, when I returned to the bus stop that night, I saw a sign, a few inches down from the CTA route sign, that I had never seen before (and I had passed by the stop many times): it warned that bikes locked to the pole could be removed.
I e-mailed CTA customer service to ask if it was possible that one of their employees took it. And if so, if it was normal practice to take a bike without leaving a notice.
I asked, too, whether— if that was the case— the CTA recorded the serial numbers of the bikes it took.
An agent quickly wrote back to apologize for the inconvenience, adding, “On occasion, we have bicycles abandoned at racks at CTA stations; we post a note on the rack to give the owner time to claim the bike. However, if no note was ever posted as a warning, then we will forward this information to the responsible General Manager for corrective action.”
I later came across a Web page that said that if a bike were taken quickly, without any warning, it was probably a thief, and not the transit agency.
That was that, I figured; if the CTA had my bike, the serial number would get cross-referenced with the police report, and I’d be notified.
I bought a new bike, along with the accessories I had lost. Yet I couldn’t get over how someone could saw through a U-bolt lock in front of a 24-hour station with a security guard— and on a busy thoroughfare, no less.
I did some more searching on the Web and found this on the CTA’s site: “Cyclists are prohibited from securing bicycles to handrails, railings, doors, ramps and stairways, or in any way blocking access to and from stations. Bicycles in violation of these regulations and/or creating a public safety hazard will be tagged and removed without notice. CTA will store these bicycles for 30 days. When in doubt, cyclists should ask CTA Station personnel.”
I went back to the station and asked the agent on duty if it could have been the CTA. Oh, yeah, he said; you shouldn’t lock up your bike to a bus stop pole. (Thanks.)
The Web page also mentioned that cyclists could call a toll-free number or e-mail the Bike and Ride Program Manager directly. So, I e-mailed the program manager, asking if the transit agency catalogued the serial numbers of the bikes they took— and whether they reported them to the police, or to the National Bike Registry.
I never heard back.
I decided to go out to the garage on the West Side where removed bikes are stored. It had taken some doing to find the address online— 3920 W. Maypole Ave., just off Pulaski Rd— but I eventually reached the garage.
They had my bike, and I got it back.
Back to why I’m posting this: I want to petition the CTA, in a respectful way, to start cataloging the serial numbers of bikes it removes. It seems only fair that a police report get cross-referenced with the inventory of a government agency. I don’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else.
Can anyone help?
Even with ideas of an advocacy group that could offer assistance?
Views: 1290
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David on
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Thank you very much, H3N3, for your acknowledgment of my issue and bringing the focus back to a strategy. Going to read on and see what others may have said...
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Thanks, Ethan. I'll look for the police report. Will get back to you.
Thanks for your help.
To Heather and Cameron: To be fair, I think it's enough to have the sign (beneath the route sign) that says, effectively, don't lock your bike here. The thing is, I've passed by that pole a thousand times, and I don't remember EVER seeing that sign. I suspect that they put it up AFTER they took my bike.
If that's so, how could I-- or the average cyclist-- have known not to lock a bike there?
In any case, I think it would be nice if they left a sticker, or note, or whatever when they remove your bike, so that who-knows-how-many-people in this city can get their bikes back. But I'll settle for the one thing I've been asking for: Simply to have a database of serial numbers that the police can cross-reference.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Perz on
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The problem with this proposal is that not all people bother to document the serial numbers of their bikes, some bikes have the serial number stamped in places that people wouldn't know to look, and some bikes even have no serial numbers at all. To establish some sort of system to attempt to catalog every bike that gets taken to their storage facility would be a colossal waste of labor and resources considering the very low number of people that might possibly benefit from it. Be glad that they have the courtesy to store your bike for a month free of charge, don't lock your bike where people get on and off of buses anymore and leave it at that.
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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on
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heather s said:
The police would only be able to get a bike back to its owner if it had been registered; based on what I've seen the only time they would reference a bike against theft reports is when a detective is trying to build a case against a specific thief and is trying to match seized property with a victim.I have no real facts to base this on, so maybe I should just keep it to myself (but then what would the Internet even be for, right?). But I imagine you'd get farther either asking the CTA to hand the bikes over to the cops, who could then check it against their own records, or asking the CTA to put a sticker on the bus sign poles telling people not to lock there.
I don't think they'd want this extra burden though.
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I agree with everything up to "be glad."
Painfully few cyclists have any record of their serial number.
Anyone with a basic ability to empathize with others should be outraged that bikes are being cut off of posts with no way for the owner to know where it's gone or why.
I think, within the bounds of what you can realistically expect from CTA in terms of assistance with this problem, that a reasonable solution might be that some sort of notice is left with instructions on how to find and claim your bike, and that there is a clear system for where bikes are stored and how they are kept secure.
Michael Perz said:The problem with this proposal is that not all people bother to document the serial numbers of their bikes, some bikes have the serial number stamped in places that people wouldn't know to look, and some bikes even have no serial numbers at all. To establish some sort of system to attempt to catalog every bike that gets taken to their storage facility would be a colossal waste of labor and resources considering the very low number of people that might possibly benefit from it. Be glad that they have the courtesy to store your bike for a month free of charge, don't lock your bike where people get on and off of buses anymore and leave it at that.
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David,
I've just torn my inbox apart and can't find an exchange from someone who lost their bike in a situation like yours; it was maybe 2 weeks ago . . . on the red line and I advised them to try the Howard station-- would like to follow up with that person with the benefit of the info you provided. Maybe that was you?
Can you drop a line to info @ stolenbike . org from regular e-mail when you get a chance?
Thanks,
Howard
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Howard, my post wasn't intended to be condescending. I was really quite surprised that the CTA hangs on to erroneously locked bikes for so long.
The problem seems to be not so much that lost items aren't cataloged but that no one can provide a definitive answer as to where they might be held. People should also be aware that items lost on any given bus or rail transit line don't always end up being held at those lines' respective terminals. I know someone that had a wallet stolen on the Red Line last year, and once she received a call informing her that it was recovered she had to claim it from the Kedzie and Van Buren bus garage where it was inexplicably being held. When a bike locked to a bus pole is removed, I would assume it gets treated like all property considered "lost" by the CTA and cataloged according to whatever system they might have for such items. Here's their lost-and-found page if you feel like attempting to make sense of it.
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Permalink Reply by Jan on
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The landlord doesn't own it. It's just on their property.
Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:Ok....
My bike is located in my apartment. My apartment is owned by my landlord. Therefore, my landlord owns my bike.
Following my (and your) faulty logic here?
Jan said:
M.A.R.K. said:
The sign post may indeed be the property of the CTA, but that sign post is located on municipal property.
John Greenfield said:Well, the City's bicycle ordinances explicitly state that it's
legal to lock bikes to sign poles, so this seems to be a conflict with CTA
policy - see below. I will consult the authorities on this.
John Greenfield
9-52-070 Parking - Permalink
No person shall park a bicycle upon a street other than upon the roadway against the curb or upon the sidewalk against a rack, parking meter or sign pole to support the bicycle or against a building or at the curb in such manner as to afford the least obstruction to pedestrian traffic.
Added Coun. J. 7-12-90, p. 18634; Amend Coun. J. 7-21-04, p. 28659, § 1
I think the conflict here possibly is the difference between city property, and private property.. The city says you can do certain things on their property, while the CTA says you cannot on theirs. Bus stops and the like are their property, and they do not want people locking and abandoning bikes to their property.
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Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on
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OK, we spoke with the Bike & Ride contact at CTA about this.
The CTA's policy is that they will remove bikes locked to their property (posted earlier in this discussion). They will also remove bikes that are blocking access to buses or stations. I believe Pablo mentioned this.
If a bike is locked to a street pole (city or other property) and is obstructing access to people getting on or off buses, they would remove the bike.
As mentioned, the policy is to tag the bike (location, date, time) and hold those bikes for 30-days.
If this happens to someone, you should call 1-888-YOURCTA (968-7282) and let them know your bike was removed. They'll ask you for a description and will work with you to get it back (which is what happened to David).
Bike & Ride told us that some of the info on CTA's site was incorrect (things that caused confusion in this discussion) and they will be making those updates.
Part of that is that the Bike & Ride email address is invalid. The best and only way for the public to contact CTA about a bike-related issue is the 888 number.
They said that they would look into the possibility of incorporating bike serial numbers into their system but couldn't say whether or not that would be possible at this time.
We can follow-up with them later this month about that.
Thanks much,
Ethan, with Active Trans
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Permalink Reply by Barry Niel Stuart on
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How much side income does CTA stand to make by the sale of confiscated bikes? Your recovery just put a small dent in that side income.
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I'm sure the follow-up is appreciated, but I'm not sure the core of the problem was addressed here . . .
Most cyclists don't know that CTA has this policy, and it's posted almost nowhere.
They will not only remove bikes in front of train stations but on street corners as well.
The serial number idea is not a good one for the reasons outlined by contributors to this thread, and probably should not have been presented to CTA.
Additionally the majority of bikes found missing from posts actually will have been stolen-- kind of sucks to add the insult of losing one's bike by sending so many victims on a wild goose chase with the CTA.
We have a serious shortage of appropriate things to lock bikes to in many parts of Chicago since the parking meter debacle, and I doubt most people reading here have not seen a bike locked to a CTA sign post in the last 24 hours.
Active Transportation Alliance said:OK, we spoke with the Bike & Ride contact at CTA about this.
The CTA's policy is that they will remove bikes locked to their property (posted earlier in this discussion). They will also remove bikes that are blocking access to buses or stations. I believe Pablo mentioned this.
If a bike is locked to a street pole (city or other property) and is obstructing access to people getting on or off buses, they would remove the bike.
As mentioned, the policy is to tag the bike (location, date, time) and hold those bikes for 30-days.
If this happens to someone, you should call 1-888-YOURCTA (968-7282) and let them know your bike was removed. They'll ask you for a description and will work with you to get it back (which is what happened to David).
Bike & Ride told us that some of the info on CTA's site was incorrect (things that caused confusion in this discussion) and they will be making those updates.
Part of that is that the Bike & Ride email address is invalid. The best and only way for the public to contact CTA about a bike-related issue is the 888 number.
They said that they would look into the possibility of incorporating bike serial numbers into their system but couldn't say whether or not that would be possible at this time.
We can follow-up with them later this month about that.
Thanks much,
Ethan, with Active Trans
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I really doubt the CTA sells the bikes they
steal"confiscate."
My guess is that the desirable ones eventually go home with garage staff and nobody could care less.
Would have been a good thing to find out-- can we get the corrected bike-and-ride contact?
Barry Niel Stuart said:How much side income does CTA stand to make by the sale of confiscated bikes? Your recovery just put a small dent in that side income.
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