Last night, a man who’d just exited the 6:33 put his foot on the bike rack at Hawthorne station and tied his shoe.

It was good to see someone other than me getting some use out of the thing.

After my initial giddiness stemming from taking on City Hall for a new bike rack, believing it would single-handedly diminish our nation’s dependency on foreign oil and allow us to pretend the Middle East doesn’t even exist–or at the least ensure there was enough room for more than five people to leave their bikes to the station–I’m a bit perplexed as to why my fellow cyclists aren’t using it. (I have, however, seen a crummy old 10-speed on the rack on a few occasions.)

Yes, most of them still make their way through a thicket of parked cars, wade through a giant puddle if it’s rained in the last 48 hours, and chain their bikes to the iron railing under the overpass, not far from the No Bicycles sign. Either they don’t know about the rack, which is located on the other side of the old station house, or they don’t trust its somewhat flimsy appearance against the skullduggery of the thugs who use our station to attend a nearby school for not very good kids, or they simply prefer locking up on the fence.

I like that I can chain up anywhere I want on the rack. But I’d feel better if more people were getting use out of it.