Bike Parking and Bike Lock Fails. Spot It. Snap It. Share It.

Do you see some poor soul out there with a wheel locked to the rack but nothing else? Take a pic and post it to this thread.

Also, if you see someone managing to take up most of the bike rack with their bike so that pretty much no one else can lock their bike there? Take a pick and post it to this thread.

I saw one bike lock fail that turned out to be a bike lock psych out - a guy made it look like his bike was locked but too lazy to actually lock it when he did his grocery shopping at TJ's (I ran in to him when I was leaving and he confirmed he was being lazy).

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by V W on August 12, 2017 at 1:16pm

I prefer a 45 degree angle that leaves one post completely free. My cargoish bike parallel to a rack would make it hard for another bike to lock up at all.

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Permalink Reply by Ernesto Lube on August 12, 2017 at 1:19pm

But then, the other cyclists, even two more, can't park their bikes outside the building.

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Permalink Reply by V W on August 12, 2017 at 3:06pm

I don't follow. Are you saying leaving one post completely free uses up more of a rack than one bike parallel?

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Permalink Reply by Ernesto Lube on August 13, 2017 at 1:41am

Yeah, some times when I get there a bit late, there's already three bikes there parked perpendicular to the post. One on a post, another one on the same post, then another under the top part, leaving a free post for mine or another bike.

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Permalink Reply by V W on August 12, 2017 at 4:27pm

Put another way, my viewpoint is this:

A bike parked parallel occupies 2 posts. Some bikes cannot be attached to a rack where there's a bike that's occupied both posts

A bike parked at a 45 (to 90) degree angle to one post leaves the other post free. All bikes can attach to a free post. Therefore the latter is the more considerate way to lock up.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Evans on August 13, 2017 at 5:34am

You only lock it parallel to the post if you use 2 U-Locks.

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Permalink Reply by V W on August 13, 2017 at 7:49am

Even then you could use 2 u locks and not take up both posts.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Valent on August 13, 2017 at 7:55am

Either way, two locks seems to be most of the theft solution. At the Brown Line terminal, the focus of my post, when the bikes are positioned with the fronts facing opposite directions, two bikes and four u-locks work okay. On the rare occasion when All racks are taken, there are several hairpins there and around the corner also, and the CTA doesn't seem to mind using it's iron fence.