Bicycle theft

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U Rack
Inverted U Racks are considered one of safer objects to park a bike at

According to BicycleLaw.com, somewhere between 800,000 to 2 million bicycles are stolen each year, though the statistic is not accurate due to a lack of laws protecting bicycles and lack of registration of bicycles. Prevention includes properly locking the bicycles and registering the serial number to prove ownership.[1] Even properly locked bicycles can have its components such as bicycle seats and bicycle wheels stolen. A bicycle that is attached to the "sucker pole" is likely to be completely stolen, wheel, seat, and everything.[2]

The problem however does not stop there. Bicycle theft is fed mainly from the fact that it generates about $350 million annually and that the risk to criminals is relatively low even compared with stealing an IPhone, a television, or a car in cities such as San Francisco and Chicago which are considered "bike friendly" cities. The criminals can easily sell the vehicle worth between $50 to $2000 in another city on Craigslist. With enough volume and relative ease of not being caught, the revenue is easy to generate. However, that does not mean that no one was caught, as for example, a bicycle shop in Toronto was caught and the owner was sent to jail.[3] The best deterrent according to another source is to "... make it not worth the criminal's while."[4][5]

Prevention

Bicycle theft can easily be prevented by following these steps based on advice from the University of Colorado police:[6]

According to this source, bicycle theft is the number one crime that occurs on college campuses as such. The reason this is the case is because bikes can sell for $250 each and totals around $350 million annually in the United States.[7]

List of secure bicycle parking areas

Bicycle parking rack in Hoge Veluwe National Park, the Netherlands

See also

References

  1. ↑ "About Bicycle Theft". 
  2. ↑ "Bicycle Theft". 
  3. ↑ "What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?". 
  4. ↑ "Underworld Economics: Why Are So Many Bikes Stolen? What Happens to Them?". 
  5. ↑ "News about Bike Theft". 
  6. ↑ "Preventing Bike Theft". 
  7. ↑ "Bike Theft". 
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