From Rust to Repurposed: A Second Life for Chicago’s Abandoned Bikes

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture, Education, Public, Chicago, Arts, City, Radio, Curious, Investigation

4.8 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2016

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

That sorry-looking bike on the curb could end up in the hands of a local kid or even a family overseas. Full story with additional interviews and photos: http://wbez.is/2dgqDAf

Transcript

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0:00.0	When we're the...
0:03.3	Where's that? Where's that story?
0:07.6	It's Curious City.
0:08.7	Where WBEZ answers your questions.
0:11.2	About Chicago, the region, and its people.
0:14.1	Hi, I'm Curious City intern Mark Filipino.
0:17.6	Aaron Dozman runs along the lakefront and notices neglected bikes, rusted, clearly unused.
0:24.1	Their owners are long gone.
0:26.3	Aaron wonders, what happens to abandoned bikes around the city, especially ones that are
0:31.9	locked up and losing parts?
0:34.6	You might think abandoned bikes are just removed and scrapped.
0:42.8	They look hopeless, but it turns out dozens of people contribute to bring some of these bikes back to life.
0:44.3	Person number one, anybody who reports an abandoned bike to the Chicago Department of Transportation.
0:50.1	Person number two, Kathleen Murphy, CEDAD's bike parking program coordinator.
0:54.8	She investigates the bike.
0:55.9	If it's missing several parts and also has spider webs on it and some rust, like, you can tell it's been sitting out for a while.
1:07.1	She tags it to warn the owner.
1:09.2	They can claim the bike, but if after a week, they don't, C.D.
1:12.7	C.D. assigns person number three to clip the bike.
1:16.0	Then C.D.
1:16.6	Hands it off to Working Bikes, a nonprofit on the southwest side.
1:20.8	Inside, Working Bikes has these enormous piles of bicycles, some that are taller than me.
	...

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