Can I get my bike back? Reader asks about City removing abandoned bikes

A reader contacted me to get my advice on retrieving her bike that had been swept up by the City in its yearly round up of abandoned bikes parked at post and rings throughout the city. My reply is below:

Hi Caroline,
I'm sorry to hear you've lost your bike. Your best bet would be to call 311 and find the official answer. From what I know the City staff put the notices on all bikes parked on ring and posts in the spring. The notices state that they will return a week later (or so) and remove the bikes that remain. Presumably they only take the ones with the notice still attached. From what I've been told by the City these bikes are either given to the police to be sold at a police auction or put into metal recycling.

I'm sure the City discussed this with their legal department before going through with this. There are always lots of abandoned bikes so the City is keen on keeping the streetscape clean. If you want to prevent this from happening in the future you will first need to remove the notice and perhaps ensure that your bike doesn't look abandoned by ensuring that it's in reasonable working order.

-- Herb

Hi there,

I was wondering if you know anything about the city's right to claim
someone's bike; specifically my bike that was parked at a ring and post on
my street.

I parked my bike outside all winter. I recently received a paper stapled to
my bike telling me to remove my bike. I didn't. And now my bike and other
bikes I noticed that had this notice attached are gone.

Okay, fine the city is right to do this if they gave me a warning and i
didn't remove my bike, but is there anyway I can go claim it? I planned to
ride it this summer. Where and how?

Thanks for your insight.