A co-worker and I have been parking our bikes at a nearby bike rack for a few years. We pretty much bike through the winter although I wussed out a lot this past one.

Anyway, three bikes appeared at the rack a few weeks ago and just stay there. They're department store types with cheap locks and no seats. One has a broken brake cable. I've moved them around (still locked to the rack) to free up some room and dumped two of them together, but more bikes are showing up now and space is getting tight.

I'm happy to see that folks are biking, or at least owning a bike, but I'm getting pissed off that folks are using the bike racks for permanent storage. This is downtown Manhattan and I suspect that the bikes belong to NYU students since there is a building used as a dorm down the block. Since the session just ended and the kids are moving out, I'm wondering if these are being stored until the kids come back in September.

So, I guess the question is, how long should bikes be left on a bike rack before they're considered abandoned and get "recycled" ?