parked illegally?
(Photo: Stephen Upchurch)
Reader Stephen Upchurch sent us an email today wondering if a threatening note he got about bike parking was legit.
Stephen locked to a gas pipe in front of the Brew House & Tower Building in Northwest Portland last week and when he returned to his bike he found this note:
Here’s the text in case the image above is illegible:
Under no circumstances are bicycles to be locked to building handrails, benches, trees or gas lines. Bikes are only permitted to be locked to bike racks city sign posts.
If your bike is found to be locked to an improper location again, we will cut the lock and impound your bike.
The note was left by an employee of Pacific Patrol Services, a company hired by the building’s managers. Stephen said he’s not upset by the incident, he’s just curious if the security company has the legal right to carry out the threat. “And if so,” Upchurch wrote, “under what circumstances or statutes?”
I gave the number on the note a call and spoke with a Pacific Patrol employee. He confirmed that they left the note and said that he’s “not sure what the City ordinance is,” but that, “anything attached to the building is private property”. He said they’re mostly concerned about folks locking up to handrails and other areas in the building’s breezeway due to liability and ADA compliance concerns (totally understandable).
to park, gas line pipes suffice.
The security employee said he’s handed out “three or four” of the notices in the last week alone and that he’s cut locks and impounded bikes only “once or twice” in the last two years. When I asked, “Don’t you think it’d be a better solution to just get a few more staple racks?”, he said, “that’s up to the building owners”.
To find out what City code says about the issue, I asked the Bureau of Transportation’s bike parking program manager Sarah Figliozzi. She said, “…the city’s laws only say that you can not block pedestrian or vehicular movements or operation of parking meter or newspaper rack.”
“No person may: Leave a bicycle so that it obstructs vehicle or pedestrian traffic on a roadway, sidewalk, driveway, handicap access ramp, building entrance, or so that it prevents operation of a parking meter or newspaper rack;”
–City Ordinance 16.70.320
Figliozzi also added that “cyclists may not park bikes on private property without owner consent” (she got first-hand experience with this when she parked on a railing near Pioneer Place Mall and returned to find her bike locked and a similar note attached. A stern lecture later and she promised to never do it again.)
Figliozzi pointed out City ordinance 16.70.320 (the “Operating Rules” listed in the “Bicycles” chapter). That ordinance states (in part) that no person may:
A. Leave a bicycle so that it obstructs vehicle or pedestrian traffic on a roadway, sidewalk, driveway, handicap access ramp, building entrance, or so that it prevents operation of a parking meter or newspaper rack;
B. Leave a bicycle secured to a fire hydrant or to a police or fire call box;
C. Leave a bicycle on private property without consent of the owner or legal tenant. Consent is implied on private commercial property;
D. Leave a bicycle on a street or other public property for more than 72 hours; or
The ordinance on impounding bicycles (16.70.330) states that a bike can be impounded if someone violates any of the above ordinances (or if the bike is an “immediate threat to the public welfare”). Also in the impounding ordinance, is language that the “impounding agency” must make “reasonable efforts” to notify the owner about it. The impounder also has the right to charge a fee to the owner of an impounded bike (unless the bike has been stolen).
So, all legalese aside, it seems like this comes down to whether or not your bike is attached to the building’s private property (and how sensitive to your parking plight a building’s security staff is). In most cases, gas lines are likely to be considered private property, however, I found nothing that says a building’s security staff has the right to impound your bike if it’s locked to a City-maintained street tree.
This story also reminds us that, despite there best efforts, the City needs to install more bike parking downtown.