Sucker pole

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See also: Bicycle lock and Bicycle parking
CTA bus stop signs are notorious "sucker poles" where 94 bicycles have been known to be stolen from in 2012 in Chicago.[1]

A sucker pole is a pole that appears to be safe to lock a bike to, but can easily be dismantled by bicycle thieves. In the U.S. city of Chicago, 252 bicycles were stolen in the year 2012 in this manner.[1] According to Cyclelicious, such poles are never secured to the base and thus making these vehicles easy targets.[2] Another source says thieves can easily take the parked bike in as few as "10 seconds" and still be in plain view in daylight.[3]

About bicycle thefts

Main article: Bicycle theft
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.[4] 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.[5]

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.[6] The best deterrent according to another source is to "... make it not worth the criminal's while."[7]

List of objects considered to be "sucker poles"

This list comes from the sources quoted in the article:

List of secure bicycle parking areas

A sodium vapour light pole is considered to be one of the safer objects to secure a bicycle.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Chicago Bike Riders Watch For 'Sucker Poles'". 
  2. ↑ "Watch for sucker poles, and a local journalist’s stripped bike". 
  3. ↑ "Bike Theft Gangs Using 'Sucker Poles' to Steal Bikes Across the City (DNA Info)". 
  4. ↑ "About Bicycle Theft". 
  5. ↑ "Bicycle Theft". 
  6. ↑ "What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?". 
  7. ↑ "Underworld Economics: Why Are So Many Bikes Stolen? What Happens to Them?". 
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