Too many wheels on the bus - The Dispatch

Orphaned bikes piling up in COTA garage might go to charity
Monday, August 3, 2009 3:07 AM
BY JOHN FUTTY
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

SHARI LEWIS | DISPATCH
Nearly 100 bicycles are in COTA's bus garage after being left on bus racks. In five years, fewer than 100 have been claimed out of 400 left behind.

Since COTA started putting bicycle racks on the front of all its buses nearly five years ago, hundreds of people have left their bikes behind after riding the bus.

Some are nice enough that one would expect the owners to come looking for them. When they don't, the Central Ohio Transit Authority is left wondering what to do: trash them, sell them or give them away?

"This is a problem for us," President Bill Lhota said recently as he surveyed nearly 100 bicycles hanging on or leaning against a wall in the bus garage at COTA's headquarters.

Some are old and battered, but others are new and well-maintained.

Ed Sowinski, a transportation supervisor for COTA,

estimated that 400 bikes have been left on bus racks in the past five years. COTA officials think that fewer than 100 were claimed by their owners.

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