A while back, I posted about an apparently abandoned bike out in front of Ritz Deli North on George. The bike had been locked up at this rack since at least January and was slowly deteriorating.
Shortly after I posted about the bike, I was at BikeFest during the Shifting Gears Challenge. There, I ran into Susan Sauve, the Transportation Demand Management Planner for the City. I asked her how I could report an abandoned bike to the City. Her first reaction was that this was an interesting question, because, up until a week prior, she didn’t know who to call, nor had the issue come up. Then, suddenly, three different people had asked her the same question in the previous week. It turns out the City Work Department deals with this, so I called them the next day. They were very helpful and took down all the details on the bike (and me).
Nothing happened for a month. The bike just sat there, it’s banana box (which was being used as a back rack) slowly dissolving; cables dangling; the frame and parts getting rustier; its angle of repose, more and more horizontal. A sadder and sadder sight.
Suddenly, yesterday, the back wheel was gone. Although, in the absence of a real wheel, the bike was cleverly balanced on its kickstand, the bike was now really getting scavenged and it was very obvious the bike was abandoned.
The very next day, a month after my call to the City and after at least six months of the thing sitting there, the bike was gone.
Coincidence…who knows??? The corner is a little less sad and run down looking now that the bike is gone. Probably a good thing for the businesses on the corner (not that you need another reason to go to the very excellent “Ritz Deli North”).
You can report abandoned bikes to the City of Peterborough Works Department, phone: 705-745-1386, e-mail: bjobbitt@peterborough.ca .