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My bikes been ruined (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/micromobility@lemmy.world
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Left my bike locked up at a rack on a road for pedestrian and commercial vehicles. Two hours later and I return to find that the bike has been flipped over the rack and both wheels are warped. Police have been unhelpful, saying for myself to request CCTV footage and that they won't investigate as no one person had been injured.

I'm so pissed, had this bike for one month now, its been a dream to ride, and some fuck probably in a commercial vehicle didn't care to check mirrors while parking, then drove off without leaving any detail.

The bike repairshop are saying the bike frame has a 5mm misalignment, both wheels will need replacing..

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[–] 81 points 3 months ago (14 children)

Now imagine your car being obliterated in a similar way and the Police saying "Nah, we won't investigate that..."

And bike frame 5mm bend basically is a 100% economic damage if it is made of aluminium or has carbon fiber components.

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  • [–] 57 points 3 months ago (8 children)

    In my area of the US at least, that is basically how it goes even for cars. If it was a hit and run and you weren't in the car they're just like "well good luck wkth the insurance company bro that really sucks"

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  • [–] 30 points 3 months ago* (5 children)

    Wow, didn't know that.

    In Germany, where I come from, "Unfallflucht" ("fleeing an accident") is a criminal offense, and for criminal offenses the police has to investigate by law.
    And it's also no joke, the penalties are potentially severe.

    Basically this also applies to damaging a parked bike with your car, only the final penalty for the offender might be lower, depending on amount of damage, but it would still be a criminal offense (as opposed to a purely civil matter).

    Wouldn't have expected the US to be that different, especially given the grim no-joke-reputation the US police forces have...

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  • [–] 26 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    It's also a crime anywhere in the US. Whether the police will do much to investigate beyond typing up a report probably depends on how easy it is for them to solve, whether you matter, etc.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    depends on [..] whether you matter

    My original point exactly.

    *insert Peter Griffin traffic control meme here, but with a car vs. a bike instead of light vs. dark skin color*

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago

    My poor '98 Honda civic's front bumper was literally ripped off in a mall parking garage - someone backed into it, then must have hooked something, and floored it. The police said they couldn't do anything because it's private property, and the mall said they didn't have any security footage because, "we don't film the garages - it would be a liability". I'm in the Midwest of the US.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    Why do you expect wealthy people to get better treatment??

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

    Why do you expect wealthy people to get better treatment??

    Not wealthy people.
    Car people.

    You know, real traffic participants!
    /s

    Not considering bikes part of normal traffic and also as being so low cost as to being not worth to bother is still a mindset surprisingly common, especially in the older parts of population.

    And regarding the poor/wealthy distinction:
    Where I live, it is by now often the other way round:
    The poor drive car, because they have to, while the more wealthy ride bikes, because they have the opportunity to do so.

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  • [–] -3 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    Those aren't poor people, unless that car is also their home. Poor people cannot afford to drive. When the crunch hits, the first thing you do is get rid of your car.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 months ago*

    Highly depends on where you live, as "poor" is defined relative to the money the median person in your specific environment earns.

    Here in Germany, a single person with net earning of less than ~1800€ per month is considered officially poor, while for a family of 4, the limit would be ~4200€.
    (and keep in mind that's for Germany, where stuff like health insurance and basic social insurance is already included).

    The jobs in this pay region are much more likely to depend on owning a car, partly because of work hours, but also because low income jobs are more likely to be in rural areas.

    Whereas higher income jobs offer e.g. flexible work hours, home office and funnily enough, often fewer work hours (as these jobs often are union controlled), making it much easier for the employees to use bikes as their main mode of transportation.

    So the mentioned inversion of poor and wealthy regarding the mode of transportation is probably only a thing in developed countries with general higher standards of living.

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