While we noted today how many states are becoming more bicycle friendly one sad part of more people on two wheels is that more bikes will be stolen. According to the latest FBI Uniform Crime Report, from 2007 to 2011, bicycle theft in the United States rose (on average) 14 percent each year. On average, over 188,500 bicycle thefts are reported stolen each year in the United States, a statistic that in itself is staggering when one also considers the number of bicycle thefts that go unreported.
While some US cities are starting to fight back against bicycle theft, much more could be done. In San Francisco, the city issued its first ever official look at the bike theft problem in 2013 and issued a goal to reduce bicycle theft in the city by at least 50 percent over the next 5 years. The city also created a bike registry to help combat the 70 percent rise in bicycle thefts since 2006. Continue reading Bike Theft Report
This QR code stuck to your bike will help locate it in the event of theft.
A bike shop owner we know in Harlem once saw one of his bikes ride by him. The bike had been stolen a year or two before the sighting. He grabbed the cyclist and learned the beat up yet high-end bike was just purchased for a suspiciously low sum of money and reclaimed his old friend. We know a few other people who have reclaimed their bikes from thieves, but it’s an action that needs to be undertaken with caution.
We advise you use caution when recovering your stolen bike, but some precaution and active social measures make finding your bike a real possibility. Kryptonite and Bike Revolution both teamed up to apply social networking to crowdsource the recovery of stolen bikes. Register your bike on U.K.-based bikerevolution.org with its make and serial number, it’s free. To take precautions a step further, purchase a Kryptonite Bike Revolution Bicycle ID Kit that includes anti-theft Pulse ID tags.
The kit includes a Pulse ID tag, a unique, tamper-resistant, weatherproof ID tag with its own QR code so anyone with a mobile phone and a downloaded program can scan and identify the tagged bicycle. The scanned tag links to the bike in Bike Revolution’s secure database, which tracks the status of the bike. If a bike is listed as stolen, Bike Revolution publishes information on the bike on its site and uses social networking tools to mobilize the community to search for the bike. Localized Stolen Bike alerts are sent to Bike Revolution’s followers on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Alerts are also sent to local authorities, bike shops, cycling clubs and other groups to be aware of the stolen bike.
That same Harlem shop owner has a bulletin board for community announcements but only posts his employee’s bikes for sale, and occasionally a trusted seller. He’s leery of helping sell a stolen bike. The Kryptonite Bike Revolution Bicycle ID Kit is somewhat like a community watch group to help find your stolen bike, but prevention is your first line of security. We still advocate locking a bike when leaving it unattended. May we suggest one of Kryptonite’s bike locks?
