Bikes, commuters by the hundreds are parted

Updated: September 2, 2010 - 10:42 PM

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It seems like seamless and sustainable urban transportation: You ride your bike to the bus or light-rail stop, attach it to the bus bumper rack or the wall of the train car, and relax for the rest of the ride to work or home.

Seamless, unless you forget about the bike.

Each day dozens of bikes get carried away by Metro Transit buses and trains, only to wander riderless around town. Last year 795 bikes went circulating around the metro, with 307 being reunited with their owners. Two years ago, 899 bikes were orphaned and only 262 reclaimed.

Metro Transit spokesman Bob Gibbons said bike owners forget their bikes most often when they're distracted by conversations, either on cell phones or with other passengers. But he acknowledged that bus drivers will sometimes depart before a passenger leaving the back door of a bus can get to the bike rack in front.

If passengers separated from their bikes call Metro Transit and the company can identify where the bus or train is, it will help the passenger catch the bus or train on the return for an "on-the-fly recovery." For unclaimed bikes in Minneapolis, the end of the line runs through Metro Transit's lost-and-found (for a week) to the Minneapolis Police Department's evidence and property center. If no one claims them there, they get auctioned off. In St. Paul, unclaimed bikes go to a shop where kids can learn to repair them.

Bill McAuliffe • 612-673-7646