Metro has been trying to encourage its passengers to ride bikes to its stations — but the agency also wishes they’d remember to take the bikes home. The transit agency says it has a problem with bikes abandoned at its public racks. So the agency is rounding them up and destroying them.
The idea is that the left-behind bikes encourage more crime, under the theory that a broken window begets more broken windows. And last year 280 bikes were reported stolen at the agency, compared with 207 in 2009.
“We don’t want to create the appearance of abandoned bicycles or cars on our property,” Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn told board members.
The transit agency doesn’t have a number of how many bikes it have confiscated. But maintenance crews have been called out 12 times this year to remove one or more bicycles, said Metro spokesman Dan Stessel.
Sometimes, it’s just the picked-over carcasses of bikes. Riders occasionally leave behind their bikes once the wheels or seats have been stolen, Stessel said.
Police mark the left-behind bikes with bright orange stickers warning the owner. If the bike has not been removed within 10 days, Stessel said, police call maintenance crews to remove the bike.
Then, Taborn said, if the agency has no way to contact the owner, officials destroy the bikes.
Metro board members Mary Hynes and Cathy Hudgins encouraged agency staff to consider donating the bikes to local or international groups that refurbish bicycles.
Metro also is trying to find ways of reducing thefts of bike parts — and the theft of entire bikes after last year’s spike. So far, bikes thefts have dropped slightly from 95 bikes stolen from April to June last year to 72 so far this year.
The transit agency is considering adding more video cameras in areas where bikes are parked and looking at where it places bike racks, Taborn said. It is also talking to D.C. officials because the city has very few thefts from its public bike racks.
But Taborn also partly blamed cyclists for the problem. “Many buy expensive bikes but buy inexpensive locks,” he said.
