locking to parking meter
 

I frequently lock my bike to this parking meter in front of my friends house in Cambridge, ma near Harvard university.. yesterday I was taught a valuable lesson when I watched as someone bet a drunk guy couldn't pull the thing outta the ground with his bare hands... it took him about 15-20 seconds... be warned if you live in the cambridge/boston area, Cambridge meters are a bad spot to lock up!!


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/171/4...1688cda4cc.jpg
sorry for the crappy image, it's from a camera phone

No wonder, it's anchored in dirt.

That's effing crazy!

Hulk Smash!!!

this isn't just a cambridge/boston thing, or just a parking meter thing for that matter. always pull up on whatever signpost/whatever you're locking to in order to make sure it doesn't come out of the ground.

Ive never seen a parking meter not in concrete. weird.

Where's that "free bob jackson" pic of the lady locking her bike to the parking meter?

i wanna get in on that action. "i got five riding on the drunk, anyone see me?"

was the drunk, magnus vermagnussen by any chance?

That's pathetic. Looks like some city guys ran low on concrete, considered waiting for more and were like "**** it its friday".

I just kinda assumed since it was a parking meter the city would have a interest in making sure it stays put and couldn't be moved so easily... I won't be making assumptions anymore though...

you should steal all the quarters out

ha ha ha! pwned the meter. take it home and pick the lock. $$$

why short of fictional characters what does anyone have to gain for stealing one except a ****ty souvenir and a possible arrest.

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/im...ys-Posters.jpg

I was onced pushed into a parking meter by a friend and it bent over to a 30 degree angle. It was in concrete, but that was just in dirt. I was amazed and if the thing didn't weight such an ass load, we would have taken it for our dorm.

but yea, they come right out.

YESSS!!!!
best show ever.

I was just looking for something out of "The Big Dirty". Best show in Canada, maybe even the world...

Edit: by the way, AMAZING SHOW!!! I'm so glad it's in the states now, I use to go to my cousins in ottawa and watch it all the time.

Well in a college town anything will get stolen if it's not bolted down, no reason needed, and plus if it goes missing or is knocked down the city looses out on revenue from tickets/coins... It's not really about why the city should or shouldn't have done anything differently, more about how surprised I was to realize I had been locking to something so easily removed...and it had cement just not much


oh and I just walked past it and it had been put back up with a little bit of dirt... I gave it one little push and it bent down past a 45 deg angle

Dutret's on fire today!

yeah man, you need to do it to ones anchored in cement.

If you're U locked to it, they still can't take your bike anywhere without taking the meter. I'm not sure how heavy they are, but without a vehicle nobody's taking that anywhere by themselves.

NOTICE: Modern alcoholic beverages give drunk men the strength of 15 sober men

Ummm.... Pull pole out of lock. Tada.

I would think most U's would be skinnier than the concrete foundation at the bottom. It's hard to say for sure, but I doubt my lock would fit over that piece of crap foundation in the OP's picture, much less anything installed "properly".

*assuming that the blob of concrete remains bonded to the pole itself.

There's a big hunk on concrete at the bottom of the pole,
persumably wider than a U-lock.

Ummm....what size u-locks do you use? Check out the concrete block at the base of the pole and the meter at the top and then get back to us.

Ok ok, my bad. It looked small when I first okked at the picture. Looking again, you guys are right. I'm a moron. I admit it.

agreed! man dutret you killed the portland debate

a parking meter could be made into a killer lamp

I've seen parking meters that got bashed upwards by a sledge, the top part just snaps off and away goes the bike.

It's a fun group activity when you're bored. In high shcool we used to run through the local mall and have contests to see who could "shoplift" the largest and most impractical items. People are trained to watch out for shoppers pilfering merchandise, they generally don't know how to react when you take half the giant props from their display windows.
Its also a good way to furnish an otherwise empty apartment. Cable spool coffeetable anyone?

Steal it and take the change.

Where in cambridge was this?

Damn, I miss all those drunk wastes of life and college bro's. Not.