Lake Avenue Gold Line station a bad place for a bike

Tim Brick, the director of the Arroyo Seco Foundation, called today to say he has had four bikes stolen from the Lake Avenue Gold Station since last spring, including two in the last two weeks. He commutes to downtown L.A. and leaves his bike at the station locked with a U Lock.

The station does not have defined bike parking, which probably makes it more risky. Some sort of security camera or official looking parking area would probably be somewhat of a deterrent, though of course, any bike anywhere is not safe (as long-time Under the Dome readers might remember I was seething last summer when my bike was stolen out of my yard).

I'll be looking more into bike theft at Gold Line stations to see how widespread a problem it is. Meanwhile, below is a video that has made me decide never to buy a U Lock, which is what Brick was using. Note that although the person in the video seems to be saying at first he intended to use the technique described to steal a bike, he says at the end the bike in question is actually his.

UPDATE: Megan Dean of the L.A. County Bike Coalition tells me that U-locks are actually very reliable, at least the ones purchased new. Those, she says, would take power tools to cut into. Apparently the ones you can pick with a pen are from about 4 years back and they have all been recalled. So it is probably best to avoid suspiciously-cheap Craigslist ads for U locks.