What's this doing in the bike lane?

Share your pics, videos, streets, stories of what you find in the bike lane of the non-bike variety that has an impact on your ride and/or your safety. I've decided to keep it a little more open ended - cars, snow, buses, garbage, cabs, etc. If they shouldn't be in the bike lane, go ahead and add it to this thread. Please be safe if you are taking pics or video! :-) 

My hope is that we can collectively build some evidence of what we see when riding in the city with the overall hope of better enforcement of "bikes only" and improving maintenance. 

Update: More Hashtags to Capture Vehicles in the Bike Lane

With popular hashtags:
#BikeLaneShaming

#LaneSpreading (Chicago Bike Selling)

#ClearTheWay (ActiveTrans), there are many options to capture violations.

We think you should use ALL of them AND post your photos on The Chainlink. ;-)

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Weeks on October 22, 2019 at 10:53am

That's as may be, but it would still be encouraging to see some evidence of enforcement. "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

Permalink Reply by ketoguychicago on October 24, 2019 at 3:37pm

Again, the low odds of a ticket from the for a few hundred $$ has only a nominal effect on drivers as the length of this thread demonstrates.   Whereas if you concentrate on commercial vehicles and put a driver's entire income on the line, you have some leverage. Get the vehicle number, usually the phone number and name of the company is on the vehicle.  Photograph the scene and signs or lane markings, and call the company, ask for the the safety office, or risk management.  They care, and it gets results.  

Permalink Reply by BikeScnhook on October 25, 2019 at 3:24pm

So...as usual, there were violations in the bike lane alongside the building where I work. There were two this morning. I want to report them, but I was only able to report one. This one -- I couldn't, because I can't make out the license plate's state. This is cropped from a picture I took with my phone after I parked my bike in the storage unit; I have an alternate view of the rear plate via my action cam, but it doesn't make the state any clearer. Any guesses? My first thought was that it might be an Iowa specialty plate, but 1) none of them match up to this, and 2) a friend of mine who lives in the Quad Cities says it's not Iowa. Someone else suggested Kentucky, but no -- there's a distinct mountain outline on the plate, but Kentucky's plates have a pretty straightforward gradient.

Permalink Reply by Steve Weeks on October 26, 2019 at 2:09am

Looks like Minnesota to me.

Well, the colors look right. I can't see the mountain.

Permalink Reply by BikeScnhook on October 28, 2019 at 4:23am

Definitely not Minnesota -- I have a friend who works for the state of Minn and he actually spent an hour on Google Images looking for this. :)

Anyway, I'm about 99.99% sure it's an Ohio specialty plate. Also, I found a web site where you can run a plate and get information about the car, and for money you can get information about the registrant. Came up with a match in Ohio for a Ford Explorer XLT, which this definitely is.

Permalink Reply by Steve Weeks on October 28, 2019 at 4:57am

Good sleuthing! Too bad the original image was so fuzzy.

:-)

Permalink Reply by David P. on October 29, 2019 at 2:58am

No, that's an Escape. 

Permalink Reply by BikeScnhook on October 29, 2019 at 3:10am

That's actually what I meant to say. :)

Permalink Reply by Bruce on October 29, 2019 at 5:30am

Hi BikeSchnook, can you share with us the website you used to "run the plates"?

Permalink Reply by BikeScnhook on October 29, 2019 at 6:21am

I think it was autocheck.com. That's in my browser history, and it does give the results. There are several similar sites. It just gives the info on the car itself, not who's registered.

Permalink Reply by ketoguychicago on October 29, 2019 at 3:16pm

BikeScnhook, Here's an example of a custom vanity plate that might help corroborate the Ohio thing: 

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7IGHTn6lQjQ/Tb3incrpU_I/AAAAAAAACVQ/a6kj...

Like the one in the posted pic, this has the light blue top, two dark circles on either side within the top blue, a red square in the lower left, and a large custom logo mid-height on the left.  Pretty close anyhow.

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on November 29, 2019 at 10:00am

Postal worker acted completely clueless and pissed off I took a photo of his superb parking job, making it very difficult to use the bicycle lane and forcing me to ride in regular traffic.

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