Posted on Thursday, October 4, 2007 by
Michael •
Gail writes today from the ONE West Neighborhood Forum in Burlington, VT…
I have a friend in the New North End whose back yard is right next to an entrance to the bike path. Every weekend she ends up with several bikes of all shapes and sizes in her yard. It seems that the new teenager thing is to “borrow” a bike to get around town, and then dump it where ever it’s convenient. I once heard of a government program in Norway I think, with bright yellow bikes parked all over town for people to use to get around town. This Burlington bike borrowing is the same thing, only on a criminal scale. The police are aware – but honestly, what can they do about it? The kids who are taking the bikes don’t think there’s anything wrong with it because they don’t keep them, just borrow them. (Tell that to a devastated 6 year old whose bike is missing!) I’ve also ended up with at least 7 mystery bikes left in my driveway since last May – and had a few bikes stolen from my backyard. It’s a bit of a quandary.