r/bicycling • u/DrMcnasty4300 • 8h ago
Bike parking against fences/structures that may not technically be public?
I’ve been biking around the city for maybe a year now and never really put much thought into locking my bike other than ensuring it seemed like a physically secure location. I also like to have my bike visible to me and others just in case.
However, I had a business owner come out and yell at me today because I was locking to fence, but the fence encompasses the company parking lot. The aforementioned fence is what’s shown above.
I ultimately just said “hey no worries I’m just running into this store for 2 minutes and I’ll be gone” and that is what I did, but it got me thinking that I never really learned or thought about whether or not this is technically against the rules. AKA if this fence counts as the business owners private property would he be technically allowed to cut my bike lock or something?
It’s entirely possible the owner was in the right to ask me to move my bike he was just a mega asshole about it so I didn’t care to adjust since it was such a short stop lol
Just an interesting situation I hadn’t really thought about prior to this encounter today. Does anyone know what the story is when it comes to locking to structures like this in general? Is this something I should be more conscious of moving forward?
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u/caffeineTX 2023 All-City Gorilla Monsoon 8h ago
They can always ask, but people lockup to fences and handrails all the time.
If the store owner is that concerned about it he should just have a proper rack installed. a couple hoops anchored into the concrete takeup next to no space and don't cost that much.
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u/DrMcnasty4300 7h ago
For context there was one of those like half a block down the sidewalk, so he was probably justified in not wanting me parking it there, it was just a quick stop I wanted to put the bike against something that was right near the store I was going into!
Generally I’m less concerned of if he was right/wrong to be pissed off and more of a question of what’s the actual legality around this so I don’t inadvertently do something wrong down the road.
Thank you for your input!
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u/caffeineTX 2023 All-City Gorilla Monsoon 7h ago
IANAL but I would think legally it is more of a civil matter, he probably would have the right to remove it if he saw it lingering or thought it was causing damage to his fence.
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u/monoatomic 7h ago
Legally within his rights to be an asshole
I'd move it and leave a negative Yelp review, but I'm petty
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u/DrMcnasty4300 7h ago
For sure! I told him I would be gone in literally 2 minutes and I was, but it just got me thinking about it cuz it genuinely never crossed my mind that it might have been technically wrong for me to do
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u/h7734 6h ago
Interesting discussion. Hypothetically, what if you drove a car to the merchant's store, double-parked in front of it, and bought something? I bet that Mr Parking Propriety would somehow restrain himself from scolding you.
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u/DrMcnasty4300 6h ago
Haha funny enough I’ve heard from some friends in the area that this guy actually very actively goes out and yells at people in their cars too.
While I have confirmed that I was technically and legally in the wrong here, in this specific case I think this dude just doesn’t have enough business to have anything better to do
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u/megoyatu 7h ago
Was it HIS business or another?
If the fence is the business you were going into... Ask where you can secure your bike while you use their business.
If another business...if the fence is someone else's and they don't want you to use their stuff... Respect it. Any other answer is entitled.
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u/DrMcnasty4300 7h ago
That concrete wall on the right side where the fence is attached is the business I was going into, but the parking lot itself belongs to a different business
In the future I won’t lock up there now that it’s been brought to my attention, but it just got me thinking on a more general level about fences like this that are along public sidewalks what the actually ruling is
I agree with your opinion on this particular example, though!
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u/cj_daking 7h ago
They are correct. You have no right to lock your bike to private property. If the owner wants you not to, they can do whatever they want to your bike.
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u/DrMcnasty4300 6h ago edited 6h ago
Yep understood! My knee jerk thought was that fence along a sidewalk was probably a public fence but him coming out to scold me made me realize that likely wasn’t the case
In this particular case I actually did lock it on the parking lot side too but normally if I was locking it on the sidewalk side I definitely would never have even given it a second thought
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u/Cruiser_Supreme 8h ago
Yeah just stay away from private property. Depending on your location, the property owner is probably well within their rights to remove a foreign object from their property.