5 ms·

This is the kind of thing that gets your tires jumped on and slashed. We don't need better locks, we need better police response to theft.

dylan604 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago
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- makeitdouble 5y ago
  I'm no proponent of broken window fallacies, but I think having an environment where petty theft is harder to pull off has second order/third order effects. Like people more willing to ride bikes in the first place, less mental burden in general, and I'd wagger it has an impact on street life and how long people would want to spend time outside instead of privately monitored malls and shopping facilities.
- deleted 5y ago
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- Gigachad 5y ago
  It's much bigger than the value of the bike. Theft is probably the main thing holding back bike transport in general.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    Theft is the main thing? How about a population of drivers that pay zero consideration that a bicycle is something to be concerned. Bike friendly places to ride the bikes are bigger holdback where I am.
    - fartcannon 5y ago
      You'll find that once you have bike friendly places to ride, your next problem is flagrant theft of commuter vehicles (bikes).
- stingrae 5y ago
  most bikes are definitely >$500 at this point.
- fartcannon 5y ago
  There's no reason for that. You can make your point without antagonistic trolling. To respond to your criticism, the "proper precautions" that I'm taking are to discuss/rally people to consider politically forcing the police to take it more seriously. Because bike locks don't work.
f1refly 5y ago
This was my first thought as well. After I got a better lock that wouldn't give after twisting the bike multiple times, they just destroyed it out of spite.
hnbad 5y ago
This makes a lot of unfounded assumptions about what the police can and would do. There's not a lot the police can do after a bike is stolen within proportion to the value of the stolen bike and bikes are both easy to steal and easy to scrap for parts (that are practically untraceable in most cases). So what do you end up with? More police patrols in "high crime" neighborhoods and more "spot checks" (a la stop and frisk), both approaches that have been demonstrative failures for decades but satisfy the political pressure to "do something". A better long-term solution would be to reduce the need for policing by mending the socioeconomic conditions that result in bike theft. Rampant bike theft isn't a global issue and is actually less of an issue in some countries that have a lot more bikes on the streets per person than any city in the US does. The difference isn't better policing. Aside from the fringe issue of organized crime, most bike theft is associated with addicts trying to make a quick buck to buy drugs and we already know police isn't the answer to reducing drug addiction.
- carlospwk 5y ago
  >This makes a lot of unfounded assumptions about what the police can and would do. In a lot of places they do absolutely nothing. A lot of bikes show up on sale on places like FB Marketplace shortly after they're stolen, cops could easily go set up meetings with these thieves if they wanted to. You can have god knows how much evidence or pictures or whatever of the thief but they do nothing. If I was selling stolen cars online, they'd be allover me, but bikes don't matter apparently. >There's not a lot the police can do after a bike is stolen within proportion to the value of the stolen bike and bikes are both easy to steal and easy to scrap for parts (that are practically untraceable in most cases). Sure, if you look at the value of a single bike this is true. But generally professional bike thieves steal multiple bikes and it ads up. Here in Finland, in 2020 insurance companies paid 11 million euros worth of compensation for stolen bikes. And that's just the ones which were reported & still worth something.
- robbie-c 5y ago
  There's other things they can do rather than just more patrols. At my university town in the UK the police would plant bait bikes and watch from afar, arresting thieves after they rode off. I know they caught some, because they caught someone from one of my lectures.

dylan604 5y ago

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
makeitdouble 5y ago
I'm no proponent of broken window fallacies, but I think having an environment where petty theft is harder to pull off has second order/third order effects. Like people more willing to ride bikes in the first place, less mental burden in general, and I'd wagger it has an impact on street life and how long people would want to spend time outside instead of privately monitored malls and shopping facilities.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Gigachad 5y ago
It's much bigger than the value of the bike. Theft is probably the main thing holding back bike transport in general.
- dylan604 5y ago
  Theft is the main thing? How about a population of drivers that pay zero consideration that a bicycle is something to be concerned. Bike friendly places to ride the bikes are bigger holdback where I am.
  - fartcannon 5y ago
    You'll find that once you have bike friendly places to ride, your next problem is flagrant theft of commuter vehicles (bikes).
stingrae 5y ago
most bikes are definitely >$500 at this point.
fartcannon 5y ago
There's no reason for that. You can make your point without antagonistic trolling. To respond to your criticism, the "proper precautions" that I'm taking are to discuss/rally people to consider politically forcing the police to take it more seriously. Because bike locks don't work.

f1refly 5y ago

This was my first thought as well. After I got a better lock that wouldn't give after twisting the bike multiple times, they just destroyed it out of spite.

hnbad 5y ago

This makes a lot of unfounded assumptions about what the police can and would do. There's not a lot the police can do after a bike is stolen within proportion to the value of the stolen bike and bikes are both easy to steal and easy to scrap for parts (that are practically untraceable in most cases). So what do you end up with? More police patrols in "high crime" neighborhoods and more "spot checks" (a la stop and frisk), both approaches that have been demonstrative failures for decades but satisfy the political pressure to "do something". A better long-term solution would be to reduce the need for policing by mending the socioeconomic conditions that result in bike theft. Rampant bike theft isn't a global issue and is actually less of an issue in some countries that have a lot more bikes on the streets per person than any city in the US does. The difference isn't better policing. Aside from the fringe issue of organized crime, most bike theft is associated with addicts trying to make a quick buck to buy drugs and we already know police isn't the answer to reducing drug addiction.

carlospwk 5y ago
>This makes a lot of unfounded assumptions about what the police can and would do. In a lot of places they do absolutely nothing. A lot of bikes show up on sale on places like FB Marketplace shortly after they're stolen, cops could easily go set up meetings with these thieves if they wanted to. You can have god knows how much evidence or pictures or whatever of the thief but they do nothing. If I was selling stolen cars online, they'd be allover me, but bikes don't matter apparently. >There's not a lot the police can do after a bike is stolen within proportion to the value of the stolen bike and bikes are both easy to steal and easy to scrap for parts (that are practically untraceable in most cases). Sure, if you look at the value of a single bike this is true. But generally professional bike thieves steal multiple bikes and it ads up. Here in Finland, in 2020 insurance companies paid 11 million euros worth of compensation for stolen bikes. And that's just the ones which were reported & still worth something.
robbie-c 5y ago
There's other things they can do rather than just more patrols. At my university town in the UK the police would plant bait bikes and watch from afar, arresting thieves after they rode off. I know they caught some, because they caught someone from one of my lectures.