Let Facebook and Google deal with their bikes. If they see someone riding that isn't supposed to, then they can ask for it back or call the police. Why cost the cities the time and resources it takes to deal with such a dumb situation. Have the employees sign them out with an app and bar code. Maybe then they'd be better taken care of. Or reimburse the city for the tax dollars wasted on cleaning up after themselves.

"this is why we can't have nice things"

The cold hard reality is that this is theft, plain and simple. It is irrelevant if the owner does not secure them (this is a problem in itself). If you leave your car door unlocked and someone takes it off of your property, this is theft in the same vein--partly your fault, but still theft.

I do think, however, the owners (Facebook, Google, etc.) need to take some responsibility too-they do nothing to secure their bikes. I remember having an e-mail discussion group with our neighborhood, and someone seriously commented how nice it was to have Google sponsoring a free bike share program. That is not the purpose of this.

I also wonder what the ramifications would be if a citizen does 'borrow' a bike and they are hurt (hopefully this won't happen)...who bears responsibility? Could the bike owner be sued?

I don't understand the controversy. Bike theft is a crime. As a bicycle owner, I'm always happy for the police to target bike thieves. There has been a longstanding problem of people stealing these bikes and dumping them in the creek.

Mountain View taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for these mega-corps and their bikes. They have already created outrageously priced housing, clogged streets full of distracted drivers and the young techie people who believe the world owes them something. Not to mention the self-driving cars that are completely stupid!!

Facebook & Google, keep track of your own damn bikes!!!!

Maybe they should profile the riders and their baggage??? Just a helpful suggestion :-) Techies have a pretty narrow profile compared to non-techies.

It's a small step from taking a Google/Facebook bike to taking a better bike belonging to an individual. These bikes are not intended to leave their campuses. So it's fair for the police to react when they see one miles from a campus and ask the rider for proof of where they work.

If Facebook or Google really cared about who rides their bikes, shouldn't they start by simply locking them with keys/codes only available to their employees? Since they don't seem to care, why are we wasting taxpayers money enforcing this?

Facebook employees are not allowed to take the bikes off campus (except to bike between campuses). If someone is riding a Facebook bike at the Stanford Shopping Center, they are either a Facebook employee breaking the rules or a person who has stolen a bike.

Facebook employees have badges, so it should be easy to determine if they are a Facebook employee. If they don't have a badge and they are riding a Facebook bike, chances are pretty good they are not a Facebook employee.

Just because a bicycle is not locked up does not mean that it is free for the taking. Our society works because we all believe in the rule of law. I there was a law that said bikes that are not locked up are free to anyone, then it would be ok, but there is no such law as far as I know.

The police are supposed to enforce the law for everyone. It is not reasonable or desirable to selectively enforce laws.

That being said, instead of stealing bikes, there are ways to get low cost or free bikes legally. For example, the San Francisco Bike Coalition has a program (Web Link In Palo Alto, the Bicycle Exchange (Web Link is helping people learn how to fix bikes and donating them to non-profits that serve disadvantaged folks in our community.

If you know of other organizations, you can post them here and help spread the word.

I see our usual right-wing Trump-loving nutjobs are all over this news story. Sorry, but people are not “stealing” the bikes from Google. The employees are riding them off-campus and leaving them unlocked, making them appear abandoned. I understand thay our local loonies want the police to pull over minorities—they love the wall, racial profiling and receiving govt services while cheating on their taxes!

I'm a little surprised that no one's making the distinction between a private individual's property, like a bike, and a giant fleet of private bicycles owned by one of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world, which they have strewn all over Mountain View *as if they were public bikes.* The one is not like the other.

I know a lower-middle class kid who use a Google bike to go to school every day with the full knowledge of their parents and the extended family that lives with them. I'm quite sure none of them consider themselves thieves. Those bikes are defacto public bikes, at least I know lot of people who will happily hop on one on their way into downtown. They're not *stealing* it, they're using it and dropping it off in a public spot when they get into town.

If they're not for public use, then why would any of us tolerate Google littering our pubic spaces with their private bikes? C'mon Google, step up and tell the police to stop harassing people using your public bikes!

Not one second or one penny of police resources should be allocated to the protection of corporate bicycles until these corporations take action to limit the use of the bicycles. A simple wheel lock as seen on millions of bikes in Europe can be used to lock them and prevent unauthorized use. Every employee can be issued a key and should lock the bike when parked. Then, if a bike is spotted where the lock has been damaged or tampered with otherwise, there is evidence of a crime committed. Until then, hands off. And when they are found in the creek or another damaging location, these corps should be FINED to pay for the recovery and removal of their GARBAGE.

Since Google and Facebook don't police their own bikes, i.e., require in some way to determine that only their employees are using them, I don't see why anyone should be stopped.

It would be one thing if the bikes weren't littered all over the place, but they most certainly are. If Google, Facebook or others are going to spray the community with unlocked bicycles, then those bicycles should be free to be used by the community. The solution on their end if they don't want the community using their bikes is to simply provide at least some level of security. They fact that they don't and that you find these bikes clearly abandoned all over the place leads many people to believe that they are available for community use.

The police could better use their resources fining these companies for each abandoned bike rather than individuals who find the abandoned bikes (sometimes on their own yards) and put them to use.

So exactly what is the definition of theft? If a Google bike or a Facebook bike is left near my house and I decide to ride it to downtown and leave it, is that theft? Or is it bike share? What happens if I find one downtown and decide to ride it say to Caltrain. Is that bike share?

PA Resident, it is strange that you have to ask these questions. Of course it’s a theft. You toll and used something that doesn’t belong to you without owner’s permission.

^took

On what criteria are police stopping people riding Google bikes because they presume they aren’t Google employees? And what happens if they happen to not be carrying their work ID on them? Why do I think that I, as a white middle aged woman who doesn’t work for Google, am less likely to get stopped than a 24 year old Latino employee. Let Google police their own bicycle use.

Janet makes a good point, which is that attempts to stop and question Google Bike riders inevitably reinforces structural white supremacy in that the easy call is for cops to stop riders of color, especially younger riders and those who don't look like Silicon Valley engineers (i.e. lower middle-class Hispanic riders). So unless they want to stop and question EVERYONE on a Google Bike they should leave all riders alone.

Both sides have points here. Taking the major points together, we could have the law try to correct two wrongs: 1) the theft, or misuse, of corporate bikes by non-employees, or off of corporate campuses, and 2) the littering of our public spaces with carelessly dumped corporate bikes. We could do this by enforcing laws against both, or deciding they cancel each other and thus save taxpayer money that would be spent on enforcement. The key is to be clear about our expectations. If we are going to decide it all cancels out, the announce publicly that we are explicitly allowing sharing, not that we are ignoring theft. Alternately, aggressively enforce by stopping every rider found outside a corporate campus. No profiling needed. And fine the companies for every bike found abandoned and unlocked. I predict they'll quickly take care of things from their end if that choice is made.

I guess there is no serious crime and traffic issues in Mountain View so that the police can accost bike riders on colorful bicycles.
How about confiscating the abandoned bikes around town? They are a hazard on sidewalks and streets.
I agree with A Balanced Solution, above.

This is a worthwhile discussion and debate for two reasons.

1. Do we want the policy stereotyping and profiling people because they may be riding a Google/Facebook bike without being employed by said company? If one officer makes a mistake, what would the ramifications of that be?

2. What is misuse of the property by a non-employee? If I happen to find a bike dumped outside my home and I decide to be neighborly and return it to the campus by riding it, is that misuse, theft, or justifiable? And if an employee rides a bike home from work and then leaves it is that misuse? And if said employee rides the bike home from work, leave work later with the bike to take to go to dinner is that misuse since he is an employee? And what happens if he takes another bike home after dinner and leaves it at home so that he can ride it to work the next day?

I can see the legal profession rubbing their hands in glee at the possible lawsuits coming their way and of course the high fees they will glean from such practices.

Originally I was concerned when I saw non-Google employees riding Google bikes (when somebody is about 10 years old it's pretty likely they're not a Google employee). I'm an avid bicycle rider and, in fact, don't own a car. Of course I'm worried about bicycle theft but these bicycles aren't locked and are left entirely "For the Employee's Use"

Ultimately I determined that, since Google has decided not to lock up the bikes, that they send folks around in the evening to retrieve bikes left lying about Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, etc that Google considers the occasional loss simply a cost of doing business.

These days I consider Google bikes more or less Community Bicycles. Not THAT many people take them for non-Google use. I might see one, perhaps two non-Google employees a day on Google bikes but usually not even that.

For our law enforcement folks to spend time chasing down non-Google employees riding Google bikes perhaps this represents police focus / money best spent elsewhere (stop sign runners come to mind and many drivers about Mountain View are pretty non compliant with California traffic laws).

Thanks for listening.

...well what did you think was gonna happen when they legalized cannabis. Cops need something to do.

Why is every comment here equating Facebook and Google bikes?

Facebook's campus is much more contained and it's much further from Mountain View.

It makes a lot of sense to me that police stops people on a Facebook bike, but not a Google bike.

Wow. Now I get why when you call the police in Mountain View the dispatchers say we are "really busy right now". They should just say we are "out patrolling making sure Google bicycles are secure, so handle any property crimes yourself or by filing an on-line because we don't have the time and, hey, Google is our number one priority"!

No way should police be concerned about Facebook's or Google's bikes. These companies need to regulate the bikes used by their ignorant employees by telling them not to litter these bikes all over. They need to set up a checkout system to keep track. They need to know which employees checked out bikes to ensure that these bikes are returned. We do not pay taxes to have our police put priority into keeping track of these bikes or resolving the issue that Google and Facebook have brought on themselves. The police have more important things to do like protecting the community and solving real crimes.