removing abandoned bicycles

Mrs OBumble

Does a bicycle count as a vehicle, under the Waste Management Act, section 71 (http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1996/act/10/section/71/enacted/en/html)?

Are councils allowed to remove abandoned bicycles from the streets?

Is there an guidance for them about what makes a bicycle abandoned or what process to follow?




This is hypothetical only: I don't own a bicycle, and if I did I wouldn't litter the streets with it. But I'm interested in what laws apply.

Victor

It's slightly ambiguous.

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

(http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1996/act/10/section/71/enacted/en/html)?

Corrected link http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1996/act/10/section/71/enacted/en/html - the original one is broken by a misplaced bracket.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1996/act/10/section/5/enacted/en/html#sec5

“vehicle” includes—
(a) part of a vehicle,
(b) an article designed as a vehicle but not capable of functioning as a vehicle,
(c) a skip designed or used for carriage on a vehicle,
(d) a load on a vehicle;

So that's rather silent on the bike matter.

However, section 71 refers to:

“registered owner” has the meaning assigned to it by the Road Traffic Act, 1961

The Road Traffic Acts (I would have to look for the definition) do consider bikes to be vehicles (but not mechanically propelled vehicles) for traffic purposes.

Dublin City Council has a procedure it uses to get rid of derelict bikes.

Peregrinus

If the word used in legislation is not specially defined, it has it's ordinary meaning in the context. Vehicle comes from the Latin vehere, to carry or convey, and can refer to anything by means of which people or goods may be conveyed, carried, or transported, though according to the Oxford English Dictionary it has always been mostly used to refer to land vehicles with wheels or runners (as opposed to ships, planes, etc).

If you want to limit the meaning to particular kinds of vehicles you need to add extra words - road vehicle, motor vehicle, mechanically propelled vehicle, armoured vehicle, electric vehicle. Alternatively you can broaden the meaning by adding words - NASA, for example, uses space vehicle, interplanetary vehicle, launch vehicle, re-entry vehicle.

So, yeah, a bicycle is a vehicle; why wouldn't it be? It carries people, and a modest quantity of goods. If you want to argue that, in the context of this particular legislation, "vehicle" doesn't include a bicycle, I think you'd need to point to something in the purpose or operation of the legislation which would make it inappropriate to apply it to bicycles, and then argue that the Oireachtas can't have intended to include bicycles.

prinzeugen

I know Dublin city council attach stickers to such frames (as that is all that is left) to inform owners to remove whats left or they will.

I remember going to work at 4am one morning and a DCC crew were going round in a truck removing any old/stripped push bikes.

My landlord has atleast 15-20 bikes that have been left behind by former tenants. He had to cut the locks to remove them. It seems to be a European thing. Buy a cheap bike and leave it chained up while you go back home for good. Someone elses problem then.

AndrewJRenko

I'm not sure of the legal position, but some Councils certainly will remove 'derelict' bikes on demand. In Dublin, they used to recycle (no pun intended) these bikes through Rothar, but I'm not sure if they still do that.