Someone apparently scattered thumbtacks across the paths of the Hawthorne Bridge crossing early Tuesday evening. Our latest report of trouble came in at 8:20 this morning.
We heard from one source who said they stopped and picked up more than 40 tacks on their way home last night.
This sort of seemingly deliberate attack is especially hard to understand because it has some potential to put people in real physical danger.
This is maybe the appropriate place to disclose that I was a victim myself at about 7 p.m. last night (eastbound), and that this morning’s report came from my (eastbound) girlfriend, who wasn’t protected by the fact that I’d warned her about the possibility. There’s also a thread on Reddit today in which two other people say they were hit while headed westbound.
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We’ve written about tack attacks in the past, on North Vancouver and Williams and in the Columbia Gorge, and there have also been incidents we haven’t covered.
In the Reddit thread, one person reports having “hit a few when someone loaded the routes to the meetup park for the World Naked Bike Ride.”
Bizarre attacks like this are more than just an serious annoyance and a slight danger to folks affected by it. They’re also sort of the inverse of a big fun event like the Bridge Pedal or the naked ride, which give thousands of casual bike users a reason to get their tires pumped and their brakes checked, ready to ride. For someone on the edge between biking and not biking, a flat tire can put someone off the road for days or weeks.
Do you have any more information about how or when this might have happened?