Mystery bikeshare graveyard in Ballard explained
Aug 30, 2019, 5:16 AM | Updated: 12:50 pm
What do you do when you’re no longer the state’s Secretary of Transportation? Solve transportation mysteries, of course.
Doug MacDonald told The Candy, Mike, and Todd Show on KIRO Radio that he’s discovered what appears to be a graveyard for bikeshares in Ballard. But it turns out that it’s not what it appeared to be last week.
MacDonald said about 200 bikes were sitting in a parking lot behind an old warehouse along 8th Avenue.
“They’re overflowing out onto the sidewalk,” MacDonald said.
He spoke with a man sitting in a chair in the lot who was taking apart some of the bikes to recycle them or fix them. MacDonald said the man wasn’t very clear but mentioned something about new bikes coming in and the power being off in the building for two weeks.
“So what I’d like to know is, what is going on with the bikes?”
MacDonald has filed a public disclosure request to see if he can learn more about what’s happening with all of these bikes.
Meanwhile, MacDonald learned that the warehouse is where Limebike stores its bikes. And the reason they were all outside is there was a fire at the warehouse on August 14, as reported by MyBallard.
As of today, the warehouse still isn’t in operation and “they’re struggling to get back to serving the business,” the operations manager told MacDonald.
On Friday, the adjacent parking lot included a few pop-up tents where workers were repairing broken down Limebikes.
MyBallard reported the fire started when one of the bike’s battery packs ignited and caused surrounded packs to catch fire. However, the fire was contained to one room.
This isn’t the first time a Limebike battery pack has caught fire. A reddit user posted video of a battery explosion near the University of Washington campus two weeks ago — about the same timeframe as the fire.
