A Vancouver man whose $1,300 bike was recently stolen at Granville Island said the racks are poorly designed and it only takes the removal of one bolt to steal locked bicycles.
Jason Cushing, 28, who works at the public market, said thieves snagged his bike in broad daylight by unbolting a screw holding the rack to the ground, then lifting the rack and sliding his bike out.
“And it wasn’t just the one (rack). Most of them are unbolted,” Cushing said. “The designs of the racks are flawed. Any engineer could figure out how to make a better one.”
Cushing said when he told Granville Island administration, they dismissed him.
“They said someone had their bike stolen a couple days (earlier), and I said, ‘Why isn’t anyone doing anything about this?’ and they said they’ll talk to the maintenance guy.”
He said a week later, none of the racks have been fixed.
“I bike everyday, everywhere,” Cushing said. “I invested a lot of money in my bike and no one’s doing anything about it.”
He added that bike theft is a “big problem” on Granville Island, and while you can’t stop a thief from clipping your lock, you should be able to trust the integrity of the racks.
“I don’t even really want compensation. I want someone who’s in charge to fix this so it doesn’t happen to someone else.”
Scott Fraser, a spokesperson for Granville Island, said he hadn’t heard of Cushing’s complaint or about an “epidemic” of bike thievery on the Island.
“If this was a thief that’s been doing this regularly, then we’d be bearing about this a lot,” Fraser said.
He said the racks on the Island are a standard design used across the city, adding that they don’t get replaced unless there’s a “clear or obvious flaw.”
Fraser did say that he would be looking into the situation.
