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- Sagadahoc County, Maine
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- Promoters of Free-Bike Programs Are Waging War Against Thieves
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- By Ross Kerber Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
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- Suffering heavy losses in a brutal war of attrition, the
loosely tied band of free-bike distributors around the country
is beginning to fight back.
- Ira L. Grishaver has chosen his new weapon: the welding torch.
- Mr. Grishaver is a manager at the Community Cycling Center
in Portland, Ore., which had helped strategically place 800 bicycles
around downtown streets. Riders were invited to pick up one of
the distinctively colored Yellow Bikes and leave it, unlocked,
at their destination for the next foot-weary soul.
- The idea was to promote environmentally friendly transport.
Refurbished old clunkers have likewise become garishly colored
bike fleets in dozens of other places, including Denver, Fresno,
Calif., and Austin, Texas.
- The trouble is thievery. Only one of Portland's 800 bikes
has been seen in the streets in recent months. Certain that at
least some of the bikes were stolen for parts, Mr. Grishaver
decided to make his new issue of freebies less appealing to poachers
by welding their seats and handlebars to the bike frame so they
can't be detached.
- The Green Party of Sagadahoc County, Maine, has a different
approach: reinforcements. The party had dispersed 30 old two-wheelers
around Brunswick last Earth Day. But local youths apparently
disposed of about 25 of them, some of which were tossed off bridges.
A second batch of donated bikes didn't fare much better; one
was left 30 miles away in Lewiston.
- Bob Dale, a Green Party member, vows to continue putting
bikes on the streets, and says donations are starting to outpace
disappearances. "We think we're gaining on them," he
says. "We just have to teach people a little etiquette."
- Mike Flanigan of Somerville, Mass., with a similar faith
in manners, is resorting to gentle pleading.
- Mr. Flanigan, a welder at a local bike maker, wants to attach
baskets to his freebies that have a flap carrying a notice asking
riders to leave the bikes for the next traveler. He says he won't
dispatch any bikes until he has at least 30 -- reckoning he needs
that many for the public to notice them. So far he has 10.
- He figures he's in a win-win situation. Even a burgled bike
can reduce car
exhaust, he reasons. As long as the thieves keep pedaling, Mr.
Flanigan
says, "the joke's on them."
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