Is it safe to leave your bike in the racks they have on buses?

September 19, 2004 2:11 PM

Bike+bus commuting: is it safe to leave your bike in the racks they have on buses? It seems like they'd be pretty easy to steal. I have a folding bike, but I wonder if it's worth the trouble of folding it up to take it on board. I'm in L.A. if that makes any difference.
posted by electro to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

Where I live it's perfectly safe. The racks are on the front of the bus, so it's easy to keep an eye on it. Friends have even forgotten their bikes on the racks, and found them still there when the same bus came around again. Dunno about LA specifically, though.
posted by cmonkey at 3:58 PM on September 19, 2004

I used to live in Seattle, where bus and bike riding are huge, and I never heard of anyone getting their bike stolen off of a rack. If you're really worried about it, you could always put a lock through one of the wheels before the bus comes by; nobody is going to grab it and then ride away on it.

I used to live in L.A. too, and seriously, no snarkiness intended, trying to live there without a car is ridiculous.
posted by bingo at 4:19 PM on September 19, 2004

I did it in Austin for years and had no trouble at all. That said, I had a beater bike and I always sat near the front so I could keep an eye on things. Good luck!
posted by pomegranate at 6:21 PM on September 19, 2004

I did it in Ventura County for a while, and never had trouble.

(Though when I used to bike in / near south central LA, I'd actually intentionally deface my bicycle, applying wet newspaper and strategic scrapes.)
posted by weston at 10:34 PM on September 19, 2004

Thanks, everyone, for the reassurance. It's a new bike, so I'm kinda paranoid.
posted by electro at 7:23 AM on September 20, 2004