4 ms·

The idea of theft of something that could be as ubiquitous as a simple bike is a tragedy. How is bike theft still a problem?

by adolph 5y ago

jrootabega 5y ago
Bikes are expensive high-tech status symbols. I read an article about one where the frame had a lock built in.
- cush 5y ago
  I read this once too. Can’t remember the name of it though. Yerba, maybe?
ehnto 5y ago
I think they're not as ubiquitous everywhere, and different areas tend to trend toward more expensive bikes for those who do ride. Bike theft in Japan happens, but the vast majority of people have very moderate bikes and there are millions of them, the incentive for theft is really small, and there's no real need to buy stolen bikes since bikes are already pretty cheap. Meanwhile in somewhere like say California or Melbourne, it's not uncommon for a bike to be $1000+, sometimes much more, making them a pretty attractive target, and a market for stolen bikes exists because of that higher price, people are often looking for a deal on second-hand bikes, they may not even realize it's stolen.
- loeg 5y ago
  To be clear there’s also a lot of theft of bikes under $1000, in pretty much any major metro in the US.
- rtpg 5y ago
  I've had my extremely shitty bike stolen in Japan! It was a normal mama-chari, and I called all the usual suspects to confirm it hadn't been towed. The main thing was that it was parked in a place it shouldn't be parked, for enough time. Meanwhile my much nicer replacement bike is parked like 50cm away, but inside actual bike parking, and is just there. My neighbor has an even nicer bike, with a fancy GPS thingy attached to the frame, there for the taking. And it's still there! The Completist's Guide mentions that cheaper bikes are more likely to get stolen, and I heard that from police here as well. Though I think the general contours of "everyone has a bike anyways" is very true. They're also harder to fence cuz bikes in Tokyo are registered (not 100% but enough). Personally, I think that just social dynamics from having real bike parking (read: not attaching to stop signs...) helps a lot as well.
Gigachad 5y ago
Because it’s something with easy resale value and gets left unattended on the street. To solve bike theft you almost have to solve all theft first. The solution is likely something like AirTags integrated in to the bike and police who care about stopping theft.
- usrusr 5y ago
  No need even for airtags if there was a culture that made proper use of serial numbers. Like registering, checking, knowing which S/N you had when it comes to registering a theft. Registering the theft in the first place, because currently that's usually seem as an attempt to get the bike back (and seen as futile), not as doing your share in preventing future bike theft, with no expectation of immediate upside. And all that not just about frame S/N, but also for those on components. And of course proper awareness that you definitely wouldn't want to buy used with manipulated S/N. (ps: I'm guilty of all of them, not the theft part but the lack of doing my parts in the serial numbers game)
vkou 5y ago
Because the police can't be arsed to go after the fences, that buy and sell hundreds of stolen bikes every month.
coryrc 5y ago
Because bike theft is not a priority and there are many apologists for the kind of people who commit the majority of this crime.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
scrose 5y ago
The same reason car break-ins are still a problem on public streets. Except, while in many urban places you can pay for protected parking for your car(ie a garage), you can’t do the same for bikes. Ooneepod.com is trying to improve this in the USA in particular by offering extremely low-cost and secure ‘pods’ around urban areas for people to leave their bikes. Note: not affiliated with Oonee in any way, I just think it’s a cool way to try and address bike thefts while also improving the public space.
BrianHenryIE 5y ago
Its position as a non-violent crime is seen as good by police since otherwise the thieves might mug people.
hnbad 5y ago
- bikes are extremely easy to strip for parts and stolen parts are easy to sell for a few bucks (whereas with cars you need a chop shop and many parts have serial numbers) - most bike locks are trivial to defeat without any skill whatsoever (if in doubt, bring a bolt cutter) - it's impossible to distinguish a stolen bike from a not stolen bike at a glance, making them easy to transport (contrast this with trying to drive away in a stolen car after you smashed the window and set off the car alarm) - generally bikes are comparatively low value making the immense effort required to attempt to track them down after they are stolen not worth it (contrary to what TV shows might have taught you, the police mostly doesn't spend its time "solving crimes" and they're rarely successful at that, most police work consists of catching crimes in the act (e.g. traffic violations) or arresting people already accused of crimes) - people need money to live and some people need more money to live than others (e.g. addicts) and have few options available to them so theft can be an appealing option So in other words, if you adjust the socioeconomic conditions for a higher crime rate to arise, bike theft will be one of the crimes to increase the most because it's a relatively easy, quick and low-risk way to make a small amount of cash if you're desperate enough to turn to crime to feed your family or drug addiction. I don't want to say the reason bikes get stolen so much is the War on Drugs but in a way the reason bikes get stolen so much is the War on Drugs (in lieu of treating drug addiction as a mental health issue and trying to address the underlying problems causing it).

The idea of theft of something that could be as ubiquitous as a simple bike is a tragedy. How is bike theft still a problem?

by adolph 5y ago

The idea of theft of something that could be as ubiquitous as a simple bike is a tragedy. How is bike theft still a problem?

jrootabega 5y ago

Bikes are expensive high-tech status symbols. I read an article about one where the frame had a lock built in.

cush 5y ago
I read this once too. Can’t remember the name of it though. Yerba, maybe?

ehnto 5y ago

I think they're not as ubiquitous everywhere, and different areas tend to trend toward more expensive bikes for those who do ride. Bike theft in Japan happens, but the vast majority of people have very moderate bikes and there are millions of them, the incentive for theft is really small, and there's no real need to buy stolen bikes since bikes are already pretty cheap. Meanwhile in somewhere like say California or Melbourne, it's not uncommon for a bike to be $1000+, sometimes much more, making them a pretty attractive target, and a market for stolen bikes exists because of that higher price, people are often looking for a deal on second-hand bikes, they may not even realize it's stolen.

loeg 5y ago
To be clear there’s also a lot of theft of bikes under $1000, in pretty much any major metro in the US.
rtpg 5y ago
I've had my extremely shitty bike stolen in Japan! It was a normal mama-chari, and I called all the usual suspects to confirm it hadn't been towed. The main thing was that it was parked in a place it shouldn't be parked, for enough time. Meanwhile my much nicer replacement bike is parked like 50cm away, but inside actual bike parking, and is just there. My neighbor has an even nicer bike, with a fancy GPS thingy attached to the frame, there for the taking. And it's still there! The Completist's Guide mentions that cheaper bikes are more likely to get stolen, and I heard that from police here as well. Though I think the general contours of "everyone has a bike anyways" is very true. They're also harder to fence cuz bikes in Tokyo are registered (not 100% but enough). Personally, I think that just social dynamics from having real bike parking (read: not attaching to stop signs...) helps a lot as well.

Gigachad 5y ago

Because it’s something with easy resale value and gets left unattended on the street. To solve bike theft you almost have to solve all theft first. The solution is likely something like AirTags integrated in to the bike and police who care about stopping theft.

usrusr 5y ago
No need even for airtags if there was a culture that made proper use of serial numbers. Like registering, checking, knowing which S/N you had when it comes to registering a theft. Registering the theft in the first place, because currently that's usually seem as an attempt to get the bike back (and seen as futile), not as doing your share in preventing future bike theft, with no expectation of immediate upside. And all that not just about frame S/N, but also for those on components. And of course proper awareness that you definitely wouldn't want to buy used with manipulated S/N. (ps: I'm guilty of all of them, not the theft part but the lack of doing my parts in the serial numbers game)

vkou 5y ago

Because the police can't be arsed to go after the fences, that buy and sell hundreds of stolen bikes every month.

coryrc 5y ago

Because bike theft is not a priority and there are many apologists for the kind of people who commit the majority of this crime.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

scrose 5y ago

The same reason car break-ins are still a problem on public streets. Except, while in many urban places you can pay for protected parking for your car(ie a garage), you can’t do the same for bikes. Ooneepod.com is trying to improve this in the USA in particular by offering extremely low-cost and secure ‘pods’ around urban areas for people to leave their bikes. Note: not affiliated with Oonee in any way, I just think it’s a cool way to try and address bike thefts while also improving the public space.

BrianHenryIE 5y ago

Its position as a non-violent crime is seen as good by police since otherwise the thieves might mug people.

hnbad 5y ago

- bikes are extremely easy to strip for parts and stolen parts are easy to sell for a few bucks (whereas with cars you need a chop shop and many parts have serial numbers) - most bike locks are trivial to defeat without any skill whatsoever (if in doubt, bring a bolt cutter) - it's impossible to distinguish a stolen bike from a not stolen bike at a glance, making them easy to transport (contrast this with trying to drive away in a stolen car after you smashed the window and set off the car alarm) - generally bikes are comparatively low value making the immense effort required to attempt to track them down after they are stolen not worth it (contrary to what TV shows might have taught you, the police mostly doesn't spend its time "solving crimes" and they're rarely successful at that, most police work consists of catching crimes in the act (e.g. traffic violations) or arresting people already accused of crimes) - people need money to live and some people need more money to live than others (e.g. addicts) and have few options available to them so theft can be an appealing option So in other words, if you adjust the socioeconomic conditions for a higher crime rate to arise, bike theft will be one of the crimes to increase the most because it's a relatively easy, quick and low-risk way to make a small amount of cash if you're desperate enough to turn to crime to feed your family or drug addiction. I don't want to say the reason bikes get stolen so much is the War on Drugs but in a way the reason bikes get stolen so much is the War on Drugs (in lieu of treating drug addiction as a mental health issue and trying to address the underlying problems causing it).