(Photo: TriMet)
The Portland area’s public transit agency has given itself the power to seize and discard bicycles abandoned at its stations for more than a few days.
As part of a general code overhaul approved last February and effective Wednesday with the start of TriMet’s fiscal year, the TriMet board of directors approved a new code provision allowing for “a bicycle left on any property of the District Transit System for more than 72 hours may be impounded.”
That’s three days.
TriMet’s code change also says that a bicycle can be immediately impounded if it’s parked illegally and “obstructs, interferes with or impedes use of the District Transit System by the public,” or if it’s an “immediate safety threat” in some other way.
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The code requires the district to keep the impounded bike for at least 30 days and to make a “reasonable attempt to notify the owner of the impoundment and a description of how and by what date the bicycle must be claimed.”
The agency can also charge a “reasonable administrative fee” to cover its impoundment expenses.
After the 30-day waiting period, TriMet can then follow its usual procedure for disposal of abandoned or lost personal property.
Of course, many bikes that are abandoned in Portland have recently been stolen. So let’s hope TriMet’s staffers know about Bike Index and Project 529.
Correction 6:20: A previous version of this post listed the wrong number of days in an abandoned bike’s grace period.