BikeDC

“Dear PoPville,

We woke on Saturday morning to find a very nice Bianchi bicycle left on our front porch in capitol hill. It was neither ours nor our neighbors, and best we can guess is that it was stolen and dropped off when the thief did not want it anymore. That, or left by someone at our house by mistake in the middle of the night??

Either way, I tried to do the right thing and reported it to the police. The officer who came to take the report took the bicycle to the M Street SE precinct. He did say, though, that if the owner did not call that particular precinct looking for the bike, he/she would probably never find it because there is no database of bikes that the police have or find. So, if anyone knows of someone looking for a missing Bianchi bicycle, please check with the M St. SE police station.”

Ed. Note: Not a comprehensive database but MPD posts some found/stolen bike photos from MPD’s Evidence Control Division that need to be claimed in 90 days before considered “abandoned”. You can see the current group of bikes being held here.

“Dear PoPville,

I wanted to make sure that you knew that there was a mugging today on the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail this [Monday] afternoon. I was coming to the end of a bike ride with some friends and their two young kids, when pedestrians on the trail warned us of an accident ahead before the bridge that goes over the railroad tracks on the east side of the river into Anacostia Park. A man was down on the ground. He apparently had been knocked off his bike and mugged. His helmet appeared to have fallen off, and his head was bleeding profusely, according to the others on the scene. (more…)

Photo by PoPville flickr user Bossi

From a press release:

“Capital Bikeshare today celebrates the installation of its 400th station. This milestone comes as the system approaches the 6th anniversary of the region’s bike sharing system September 20.

The installation team from Motivate International, operator of Capital Bikeshare, installed a 15-dock station at the intersection of Division Avenue and Foote Street, NE, in Ward 7 in the District — marking the 400th publicly accessible station to be added to the Capital Bikeshare system. (more…)

“Dear PoPville,

After locking my green bike (the bottom one) to a bike rack on H Street on Saturday, I came back to find someone else locked their bike to mine. DC Police told me to call metro police who told me they can’t do anything. I went back to check on the bike twice today (Sunday) and it’s still locked to mine. How can I get my bike unlocked?

It’s parked on 17th St. NW in between H and Pennsylvania, if that helps. 311 sent me to a voicemail who hasn’t called me back. Went by again this morning and the blue bike is still locked to my bike!”

Unfortunately last time this happened to someone there weren’t many good suggestion beyond confirming this is indeed a common tactic used by bike thieves. Though one reader has success with MPD:

“This happened to me once. I called the cops, when they showed up and verified that it was my bike being held hostage (common practice to later steal it) they told me to go find tools or hire someone to cut the other persons lock. They waited there until I went home and retrieved my angle grinder and cut the lock. Not sure what they did with the other bike, but I overheard the radio conversation and they said to take it to the police station.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Jacques Arsenault

“Dear PoPville,

What’s the deal with people riding their motorcycle in the bike lane? Riding your bicycle to work is dangerous enough as it is, even when you use the BICYCLE LANE. It’s probably one of those things that when cops see they just look the other way.

It’s fair to say that if you ride your motorcycle in the bike lane, you’re an a**hole, right?”