According to the Central Ohio Transit Authority in Columbus, absent-minded (drunk?) cyclists have forgotten 400 bicycles in the five years since the agency first began installing racks on its buses. The agency also claims that about three-quarters of those bastardized bikes never even get reclaimed.
But it’s not just Columbus. Four hundred seems to be the magic number in Seattle as well, where a spokeswoman told the Seattle P.I. (back from the dead? hooray! hope for journalism after all) that about 400 bicycles left in bus racks go unclaimed every year there too.
A law in Seattle requires King County Metro Transit to donate its left-behind bikes to charity. But in Columbus the transit authority throws away the ones in the worst shape and sells the good ones through online auctions. The most recent auction, in March, netted a total of just $169 for 21 bikes.
Granted most of these forgotten rides are probably beat-down mountain bikes of the department store variety, but $169 for 21 bikes still begs the question: is it even worth it to sell the bikes at all? Why not just donate all of them? Even the worst clunkers could probably be used to train people how to rebuild.
So what does your city do with forgotten bicycles? Sell them for profit or donate them to charity?
[Via: Seattle PI]
