Comments on: BART bike parking is not secure

By: PJ Rivard

PJ Rivard — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 17:34:01 +0000

That was my exact thought! I see bikers locking up their bikes with hefty expensive u-locks locking one wheel to the frame and using a dollar store cable to connect the u-lock to the bike rack.

I also see the “u-lock through the stem onto a pole” routine. It’s quick and convenient but so is owning a hex key and undoing the stem bolts and walking away with the bike leaving the u-lock.

The moral of the story should have been fuck ever calling the bart police.. Learn to properly lock a bike up.

By: garion

garion — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 18:22:33 +0000

Yer one in the picture’s a ride!

By: just a thought

just a thought — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 04:45:17 +0000

I also blame the BART operators. More than half the time i see them in the booth they are playing games on their phones or talking on their phones to their friends.

I recently parked my bike front of the McArthur Bart station for a few hours DURING THE DAY mind you, and came back to find it stripped of its parts, handle bars, wheels, fork, everything but the frame. i mean stealing a bike as a whole, i understand, but stripping it of its parts in broad day light and nobody, especially the BART workers, not noticing it is just flat out ridiculous.

oh and heres the cherry on top, when i went up to the booth to tell the bart associate if he had seen anything, he was, yes you guessed it, talking on the phone to a friend (i know he was on a personal call and not a business related call, based off the conversation he was having) AND playing games on his cell phone… but hey, it IS oakland after all and maybe im just expecting too much…

By: Agent Chaos

Agent Chaos — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:30:44 +0000

Also, there is a glare on the camera on the bikes so you can’t really even see anything. He showed me the whole suffering system.

By: Agent Chaos

Agent Chaos — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:29:26 +0000

I had a bike stolen from the 16th Street Bart.
I called the cops, talked to the station agent.
Station agent said there are cameras on the bike area but THEY DO NOT RECORD. So it is up to the station agent to monitor. Well this particular station agent offered me a shitty mountain bike he had stashed in the un-accessible bathroom. Like, sorry your awesome bike got stolen, here’s a tweeker model.
This got me real sketched.
1. WHY DON’T THE CAMERAS RECORD?
You could have SO many arrests if this was the case.
2. WHY IS THE AGENT PEDDLING BIKES TO BEREAVED CYCLISTS?
This question is more important. It seems that this guy has an IN and benefits from the thefts.
Every time I see him I shake my head.

I have been trying to raise these questions of security with BART to no avail. Maybe now is a good time to get the community behind it.

By: Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable

Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:23:39 +0000

Judging by photographic evidence? A hot one.

By: Arnold

Arnold — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:57:57 +0000

Sorry about the loss of your bike. The only positive way to deter bike theft is to not allow your bike out of your sight. In your case this is impossible. Now about the girl in the pic….whats the point except that sex sells and nothing else. Did she forget to get dressed on the way to work? The article could have done without the blatant T&A shot. I’m just sayin” 0_o

By: danny

danny — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:57:52 +0000

sorry to hear about your bike. since you were using a u-lock plus a cable, it’s possible you might have accidentally secured your bike to the rack with the cable only. my coworker’s bike was stolen for this reason (she just used the u-lock to lock the cable ends together but didn’t put the u-lock around the rack) and she didn’t even realize she was doing anything wrong. unless you left the bike overnight it seems hard to believe that someone could have brought and used the necessary power tools into the station during operating hours in order to break a u-lock. but just a pair of bolt cutters to snip the cable would be much more plausible.

it’s probably not the reason, but something to watch out for just in case!

By: wizzer

wizzer — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:02:33 +0000

what kind of person rides a bike in that Hooters outfit?

By: why

why — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:39:23 +0000

surely the moral of the story is to register your bike with the police…

By: Cranky Old Mission Guy

Cranky Old Mission Guy — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:59:12 +0000

It sounds comical until you understand that one individual (such as the kind of person who would normally be employed as a drug-runner or "late-night" salesperson near either of the Mission BART stations) could easily monitor dozens of bikes. And then it sounds comical again when you think about how much an eye-baller like that would stand out, given how deep the bike racks are in the stations. And then, it stops sounding comical again, when you consider how much the station agents loathe bike riders.

By: Lil Danzig

Lil Danzig — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:13:23 +0000

My heart goes out to ya but I have to say that the thought of a bike thief ‘casing out the area’ for days prior is pretty comical to me, probably because I keep imagining Snidely Whiplash lurking in a shadowy corner of 24th st BART

By: Andrew Sarkarati

Andrew Sarkarati — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:41:31 +0000

you’re so funny you should start doing stand-up comedy

By: Alissa

Alissa — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:40:45 +0000

Good post, Vic. Sorry about your bike, crossing my fingers for its recovery.

By: E

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:03:17 +0000

Very sorry to hear about your bike. Sad to be carrying that into the new year with you. You gave a lot of great advice; thanks for passing that on.