Commisioner
Dick Schouten.
Photo: Wash. Co.
Last November, Washington County Commissioner Dick Schouten boarded the Blue Line MAX train at the Hatfield Government Center in Hillsboro. He hung his bike on a hook, sat down, and dozed off for just a few stops.
By the time he opened his eyes, his bike was gone.
Schouten filed a police report and has obtained photos of the thief in action from TriMet security cameras. He can identify the perpetrator (he remembers seeing him on the train) but so far there are no leads in the case.
At this point, Schouten hopes to have TriMet consider changing the design of bike facilities on their trains. He’d like to see “at least some seats that face the hooks.”
too easy to steal?
File photo: 1/27/06
He has contacted TriMet spokesperson Mary Fetsch and she put him in touch with their security staff. According to Schouten, “they didn’t seem too surprised” when he told them about the incident.
Close readers of this site might not be surprised either. Just over one year ago, I posted an email from someone who wondered just how secure the MAX bike hooks were.
The response seemed to be that you should never leave your bike unattended on the MAX. Locking bikes was suggested, but not recommended because it’s too much of a hassle.
Whatever the solution, or the seriousness of this issue, there might be hope for folks that want a fresh look at bicycles on MAX trains. With new lines in the works, the time is now to get involved and offer suggestions to TriMet (stay tuned for more on this).
It sucks that his bike was stolen..
Even stranger is that he got his hands on the video tape. Tri Met policy is to not show these tapes to anyone outside of Tri Met and law enforcement. (supposedly)
I have tried to get surveillance video from Tri Met, and they say you can’t have it..
I guess the rules do not apply to some people, which is the real problem here…
Equal rights at protecting yourself and your belongings on a “supposedly” public transportation…..
This is what we need…
Oh, and replace those crappy bike hooks, I have two dented bikes from them…
I always try to sit on the sideways seat so I can look at my bike without turning my head.
I always stand with my bike on the MAX, no exceptions.
Dabby,
I’m all for snap judgements and conspiracy theories.
But…
He may very well have seen the tape (or stills from it) once the police got it from Tri-met.
Yeah I guess I never saw it as a problem. If I hang my bike on the hook then that’s where I stand. Kind of nice actually as people tend to give you a little more standing room and you can wold your bike from swinging around too much.
That sucks for the guy, but c’mon you don’t leave your bike unattended like that. Set your bike next to a park bench and take a nap for a minute and see what results you have.
Anyways, on the subject of the bike hooks I also think they need redone. I have two bikes: a roadie with aero wheels that I refuse to hang on those steel hooks (too fragile) and a freeride/dh bike that I cannot hang on the hook even if I wanted to. A beefy rim + 2.5 tire will simply not fit. I have got a 2.35 to fit, but BARELY. I see a lot of MTB’s have problems with the hooks.
Yeah, I will stand next to my bike, and even hold it lightly to make sure it doesn’t sway too much and hit someone.
sometimes I’ll lock my bike on the Max if I’m worried about it getting stolen, it just sucks that it has to come to that in the first place.
Maybe the police did give him a copy.. Who is to say..
I suppose a redesign of the bike hooks could be done what with 3 million dollars being spent (or something like that) for new trains…
Even a simple clip, and a less abrasive hook would be a fix..
Sorry to hear about that, Dick.
If you’re carrying a lock, one can also lock one’s bike to the overhead bar on MAX, go sit down, relax, nap, read, whatever, then go back and unlock your bike just before you reach your intended MAX stop.
Dick, I’m so sorry! I hope you get your bike back.
How awful.
I always try to stand with my bike whilst I’m travelling on the MAX. But a senior or somebody with a disability who needs to sit down for their journey might not have the option/inclination to do this.
On a related note, perhaps having the hooks on MAX an inch or two lower wouldn’t hurt. It takes a wussy weakling like myself a great deal of effort some days to hoist my bike up that high. I can only imagine what it must be like for somebody thrice my age!
Best of luck recovering your bike.
Anything to help slow down a thief helps. If you don’t have a lock handy, try running your helmet strap through the front wheel and over the bar, then clipping it shut. It won’t help much of you’re asleep, but it’ll keep somebody from grabbing the bike at the last second before the door shuts.
It can be tough to protect your bike on a crowded bus or MAX train. Sorry about the bad news.
I use my euro wheel lock to slow the thieves down. I suggest TRIMET add a loop so that riders can cable to it.
As for redesign…I would suggest doubling the hooks, but raising one so that longer bikes can fit (Electra Townies/ Amsterdams, Batavus, etc.); adding rubber texture to the hook (so your wet rim does not allow the bike to slip off the hook in a turn); remove another seat and place the bikes up against the side of the train so they do not hang out into the crowd or out the door (handlebars), replace the fixed seats with flip up seats found in the Berlin S-Bahn carriages (allowing more standee room or carrying baby buggies, bikes, more ADA wheelchairs space, etc.), etc.
We’re kinda lucky to have bike hooks. In cities with more bike usage, like all of Europe and Asia, there are simply too many bikes to allow them onto trains. So, when Tri-Met bans them for that reason, it’ll be a happy day, ironically.
There was a time was it was against the rules to ride on the train, with your bike, in the direction of the commute, for like two hour time blocks in the morning and the afternoon.
I don’t know if anyone else recalls this…
I doubt they will go backward to that again, but I could imagine Tri Met sacrificing the already crappy bike space we have for more non peddlin’ folk.
It is becoming more and more apparent that Tri Met just is not bike friendly…
Maybe this is being too cynical, but I highly doubt standard Tri-Met policies apply to a Washington County Commissioner – or any county or Metro commissioner, city mayor or state or federal senator / representative.
I’m pretty sure the unwritten #1 rule at Tri-Met is “don’t upset the people who control your funding, right-of-way, and access to your roads / tracks / facilities”.
I still remember when you had to have a permit to take your bike on the max or bus.
I’ve had some spokes tore up from those hooks. Someone lost their balance and decided to grab my bike, completely jacking my spoke up.
Riding home from NE 181st one night, some drunk kids got on the bus and one started effing withmy bike. after glaring at him, his friend told him he should knock it off before someone gets mad. His response was just a threat and then left my bike alone.
I get paranoid often, but I don’t leave it alone that much.
I just get annoyed when the max is full and I get on, and someone refuses to move from where you hang your bike.
Disco D, you must not have gotten the memo. Bikes with “oversize wheels” (their words not mine) are not allowed on the MAX. I think what they mean is if you tire won’t fit thru the hook then you can’t have your bike on the MAX. I believe this is a passive-aggressive way to address the illegal trail riding that goes on in Washington Park. This rule and the one about “excessively dirty” (or some such wording) bikes not being allowed on the MAX.
If the hooks were 2 inches lower I wouldn’t be able to hang up my cruiser, as the back tire would still be on the ground.
Hmm really? I guess I did miss that memo. The entire time I was going to PSU I rode about twice a week with my downhill bike (not to shuttle washington park, but because it was my only bike at the time). Nobody ever said anything about the bike not fitting in the hooks, but on the other hand you only see the enforcement guys about one out of every 20 trips anyway.
You are probably right, it is a way of slowing down the goose hollow->zoo shuttle. Realistically the policy doesnt make sense for any logical reason (a 2.75″ tire doesnt take any more space on the train than a 2.0″). Hell my roadie racer friend has zipp 606 wheels on his road bike…I bet those are way too deep to fit on the hooks 🙂
http://bikeportland.org/2007/02/07/new-trimet-rules-handed-to-zoobombers/
What if I take a bike with my 1996 Campy Atlanta wheels on it..
The deepest of dishes….http://www.campyonly.com/techtalk/techtalk12.htm#Atlanta
Actually the choke of bike traffic on MAX and buses is motivating Trimet to invest in/ support the next series of bike parking (BikeLink/ eLock lockers; bikestations, BikeRepublic, etc.) along its truck lines to free up standee space…perhaps free Bromptons for annual express pass holders is the horizon?
(Kiran where are you when we need you?!)
Dabby:
Seen the zipp 808s? Listed as 81mm deep!
http://www.roadcycling.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/4/880
Of course you need a trust fund to buy a set 🙁
A bike locker is worthless to me, I bike 5 miles to the train station and then take the MAX to get over the West Hills, and then ride my bike to wherever I am going in the city. I think most people ride their bikes at both ends of their MAX commute.
Actually the crap about no trikes, trailers or tandem bugs me more. For instance a paraplegic in a wheelchair is OK but a paraplegic on a handcycle trike is not OK. There is a program in town that get blind people onto the back of a tandem bicycle, they cannot go on the MAX. You can have a stroller with 16″ bicycle wheels on the train, but not a bike trailer that carries children.
This latest batch of arbitrary rules is completely unnecessary.
I\’d like to add that my father did not receive special access to Trimet records or preferential treatment in his case simply because he is an elected official. The man who stole his bicycle has not been found. He has since bought a new bike, his first since the early 1980s.