City council: Move your bike, or else...

The city authorities may, in the future, remove bikes if they are crowding a parking lot, reports Danish media politiken.dk. This is after the Danish Parliament passed a motion in favour of the measure which kicks in next year.

The confiscated bikes will be put in a collection lot 300 meters away, for the sorry owner to come and pick it up.

This development follows from the growing problem of a large number of cycles being over-parked near crowded centers due to insufficient number of bike racks.

Accumulated bikes obstruct passers by

These bike piles are a problem to passers by and and pedestrians as they generally tend to accumulate in popular public spaces, such as shopping malls and stations.

As far as Copenhagen municipality goes, they are even allowed to cut the locks of the bikes before driving them away to the collection spot.

The cyclists union is in favour of such a drastic step, but the insurance companies point to loop holes in the plan.

Insurance fears more thefts

They point out that, if the municipality removes bikes without prior notice to owners, it might increase charges of unfounded theft.

They also mention that the collecting grounds will become new hot spots for bicycle thieves

The requirement for the municipality is that they inform the owners of the address of the collection site. Also, that the owners be allowed to retrieve the bikes free of charge.

The scheme will come into effect from March 2013.

Read the report from politiken.dk here

Also, read our article warning about new rules for bike lights here
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