Is anyone here religious about not locking to street signs?

I feel like I occasionally see pretty strong language on here about the dangers of locking one's bike to a street sign.

Is anyone here religious about never doing it? I will walk out of my way to lock to a rack, but I become flummoxed when visiting a friend's apartment on a residential street, where bike racks are rare. In those cases I just lock to a stop sign or whatever.

But is anyone here so committed to not doing that that you would walk 2 or more blocks to the nearest bike rack?

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Permalink Reply by Alex Z on November 1, 2013 at 1:49am

That's good to know; I imagine I have locked my bike to a CTA sign in the past.

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Permalink Reply by Eli on November 1, 2013 at 5:20am

How are the street signs that are mounted in grass/dirt secured? Are they just poles sunk straight down or is there some kind of ballast at the bottom? There is one in front of my building that is often convenient to lock to for an hour or two when I don't want to drag the bike up three stories just to drag it back down, and it doesn't seem like you could just pull it up out of the dirt, but maybe that's wrong?

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Permalink Reply by Dean Bekken on November 1, 2013 at 6:54am

Wow, this isn't THE Dan Brown who writes those awful books?!

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Permalink Reply by Webs on November 1, 2013 at 12:12pm

Yes, I am. I want my bike to be there when I come back and this driving factor leads me to make appropriate decisions about where is best to lock my bike. If it can be unscrewed or cut with bolt cutters, my bike will not be there.

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Permalink Reply by Josh L. on November 1, 2013 at 3:24pm

Like those above I try and avoid it. I'll look at how it is secured to the ground. I a paranoid about someone pulling it out and stealing my bike. Probably only in residential neighborhoods these days can I not find an alternative.