The Chainlink

You Moved and Damaged My Bike to Park Yours (Loop - LaSalle Street)

I'm stunned that you would twist my bike (parked perpendicular to the rack) around in such a manner as to damage it, in order to park yours parallel. If you did not want to also park yours perpendicular to the rack, you could have easily gone to another rack. You deeply scratched my down tube and fork, bent my front fender, and also damaged my front wheel (which thanks to you now makes noise with every rotation). You, with the white road bike with drop bars and clipless pedals. You, who felt it necessary to shove my bike out at a forty-five degree angle and damage it, so you could lock each wheel of yours parallel to the rack, one with a U lock and one with a heavy chain. Yes, YOU.

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Wow, I didn't realize that there are rack etiquette police patrolling the Chainlink.  I just try to park my bike leaving as much space to others as possible, regardless of the type of rack and its location.  Can't we all just get along?  

You said it Jim! There are other threads here where folks have gotten into the same argument about parking ettiquette, only i don’t recall those discussions involving somebody’s bike being damaged. I mean, everybody’s got a right to their opinion, but geez, way to jump down the OP’s throat! Guy wants to blow off some steam, what’s the big deal?

What does it matter what people ride to you?

I have parked both parallel and perpendicular on these individual, inverted U racks. On this section of LaSalle Street, between Adams and Monroe, the racks are aligned parallel to the street, and the sidewalk is wide enough for perpendicular parking. Like some have said, when your bike is perpendicular, two (or three) bikes can use the rack and the bikes are not touching and intertwined. My bike was very securely in place and did not fall over or get knocked out of place by a passerby. It was twisted around by the other cyclist, who damaged it in the process in order to parallel park. Our bikes were basically spooning--all mashed together with mine jutting out at a weird angle after being twisted around. There is no mistaking that.

Here's the thing. When a rack is empty, it's up to you to decide how you want to park. When a rack is 50% occupied, you no longer have that choice. You park parallel or perpendicular according to how the other bike is parked. You don't dare move and mangle someone else's bike because you want to park yours differently.

The person with the road bike locked each of their wheels to the rack with a different type of lock--a heavy chain lock and a U lock. There's nothing wrong with the way they locked the bike. But they should have found an empty rack or one where someone was parked parallel, rather than moving and damaging my bike so that theirs would fit.

It’s not up to you to decide how you want to park your bike and then complain when someone else decides they want to park it their own way too. I’m just going to start parking my bike however the eff I want. But when I do that, I sure as hell won’t have the right to complain when it’s damaged.

Uh, yes it’s totally up to each of us to park however we want, and we all have the right to complain when somebody damages our bike. It’s the Internet! And especially based on the range of opinions here, how can you think you have the right to damage any bike you see that isn’t parked the way you think it ought to be? Does Bob also have that right? For better or worse, i think most Americans would agree that each of our individual right to free expression stops when it involves wrenching someone else’s wheel out of true. Funny how in the rhetoric of the forum that seems to get forgotten: thanks for bringing it up so explicitly.

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