Either bike riders have become forgetful and are leaving their bicycles on Port Authority bus racks by accident or thieves are dumping stolen bikes on the buses.
Either way, the result is the transit agency has seen an increase in bikes left on the racks, which are outside on the front of most buses. Through the end of June, the agency had 63 bikes left on buses this year.
“I can’t speak for what happens here, but we know anecdotally stolen bikes end up on buses at other agencies across the country,” authority spokesman Adam Brandolph said. “I wouldn’t think we have that many riders who forget they had a bike when they got on.”
Although riders can take bikes onto light rail cars, Mr. Brandolph said none are left there, likely because riders are with the bikes inside the car during the ride.
He said bus drivers are too busy with other duties to monitor whether a rider who secures a bike on the front of the bus before he or she gets on the bus then takes it back off when the rider exits. If the driver returns to the garage and still has a bike or bikes on the front of the bus, they are removed and turned over to customer service.
Customer service keeps the bikes for 30 days. If they go unclaimed, the agency’s current policy is they can become the property of the bus driver, but that policy is under review.
“I think it’s important for the general public to know that if their bike is lost or stolen, our customer service office could be a resource,” Mr. Brandolph said. “They should check to see if we have it.”
Customer service can be reached at 412-442-2000 and is open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekends and holidays.
Of the bikes the agency has been left with this year, 27 have been returned to their owners; 13 are still in their 30-day holding period; 13 went back to the driver; and 10 were thrown away because they were in poor condition.
The authority’s policy on lost-and-found items was last updated in January 2016. Under the policy, any item found on a bus or light rail vehicle that is worth less than $300 is held at the garage for 30 days, but items worth more than $300 are turned over to Port Authority police after 24 hours.
Police hold those items for 30 days.
Right now, all unclaimed items except cell phones can be claimed by the employee who turned them in if they aren’t claimed after 30 days. Cell phones are by far the items most often left on transit vehicles, and hundreds of unclaimed cell phones have been donated over the past few years to the Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh for use by clients.
CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman, who came to Port Authority in January 2018, has ordered a review of the policy for unclaimed items to see what is done at other agencies across the country. At her previous job at the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority in Tampa, Fla., the authority donated unclaimed bicycles to an agency that inspected and repaired them if necessary and donated them to charitable groups.
In the Philadelphia area, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority said it “occasionally” has bikes left on its buses. Spokesman Andrew Busch said employees have a program where they refurbish unclaimed bikes and work with local organizations to donate them to children.
The agency keeps inexpensive items at lost and found for 30 days and more expensive items for 90 days, Mr. Busch said. Most of the expensive items are claimed by their owners, he said, and inexpensive items may be offered to employees or discarded.
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.
First Published: July 14, 2019, 5:54 p.m.
