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The biggest hurdle to biking for me is parking safely. Unless I can park it behind locked doors I have an anxious feeling that it may not be still there when I

by mongol 10mo ago

The biggest hurdle to biking for me is parking safely. Unless I can park it behind locked doors I have an anxious feeling that it may not be still there when I return. This is no problem when bicycling to work, but for arbitrary errands it is. A good lock helps of course, but it still feels like a gamble.

teekert 10mo ago
In the Netherlands you just chain it to something then you’re fine. Otherwise it’s gone in 60 seconds.
- mongol 10mo ago
  Is it really so binary? Locked bikes don't get stolen?
  - arccy 10mo ago
    just a lot less, because there are so many bikes
- usrnm 10mo ago
  Pro tip: just ride an old and rusty omafiets that nobody wants, no need for a chain.
- jeroenhd 10mo ago
  That strongly depends on the city and the places you park your bike. I've never needed to chain my bike, although I do it for new bikes because insurance demands it. There are neighborhoods in cities like Amsterdam where bicycle theft is pretty much expected to happen no matter how many locks you buy, but in smaller towns there's barely a need to lock your bike at all during the day.
prmoustache 10mo ago
I always kept my bicycle inside my office. I also found out that if you ask politely, many shops allows you to enter with your bike provided there is enough space.
pandaman 10mo ago
This is the ultimate American urbanist conundrum. Bikes are pretty useless for transportation in American cities because of rampant theft. Locks get cut in the broad daylight and even if the thief is too inept to steal an angle grinder, or already ran out of batteries for today, they will still rip off parts (wheels, saddle, brakes, group, they will even rip out lights from the mounts, just because). But they also cannot demand the law enforcement against it because the thieves are the precious "unhoused" (which is very easy to check by visiting any encampment and observing all the bikes and bike parts there). So we get this strange situation when cities build bike lanes and bike parks which are empty because, at most, you can only commute on your bike if your place of work has a secure storage. Enforcing the laws against bike thieves would be 100x more effective in promoting biking than building anything.
- queenkjuul 10mo ago
  This is ridiculous. Bike thieves are prosecuted here, and parts theft is nowhere near as common as you're implying. Nobody I know here (Chicago) has ever really had a problem with it (bikes entirely being stolen, yeah that happens, but CPD is absolutely not refusing to investigate someone on account of being homeless, that's patently absurd)
  - pandaman 10mo ago
    So you are arguing that people you know only had their whole bikes stolen and not wheels/saddles/etc ? I don't think it's a good argument, tbqh. Even if the people you know made a meaningful sample of Chicago population (they don't) they still get bikes stolen and it still means the law is not enforced well enough. And CPD can investigate all they want, CPD, like any other police department, cannot put people in prison. The DA has to press charges and prosecute in the court, which won't happen with any DA in any major city against homeless (otherwise all homeless would have been already in prison).
    - queenkjuul 10mo ago
      No, nobody I know has had their bike stolen. I am acknowledging that bikes are sometimes stolen. CPD has a bike registry and does actively investigate bike theft. And no, the DA does not withhold prosecution for theft based on ones housing status. (Since you seem unaware: being homeless is not illegal)

by mongol 10mo ago

teekert 10mo ago

In the Netherlands you just chain it to something then you’re fine. Otherwise it’s gone in 60 seconds.

mongol 10mo ago
Is it really so binary? Locked bikes don't get stolen?
- arccy 10mo ago
  just a lot less, because there are so many bikes
usrnm 10mo ago
Pro tip: just ride an old and rusty omafiets that nobody wants, no need for a chain.
jeroenhd 10mo ago
That strongly depends on the city and the places you park your bike. I've never needed to chain my bike, although I do it for new bikes because insurance demands it. There are neighborhoods in cities like Amsterdam where bicycle theft is pretty much expected to happen no matter how many locks you buy, but in smaller towns there's barely a need to lock your bike at all during the day.

prmoustache 10mo ago

I always kept my bicycle inside my office. I also found out that if you ask politely, many shops allows you to enter with your bike provided there is enough space.

pandaman 10mo ago

This is the ultimate American urbanist conundrum. Bikes are pretty useless for transportation in American cities because of rampant theft. Locks get cut in the broad daylight and even if the thief is too inept to steal an angle grinder, or already ran out of batteries for today, they will still rip off parts (wheels, saddle, brakes, group, they will even rip out lights from the mounts, just because). But they also cannot demand the law enforcement against it because the thieves are the precious "unhoused" (which is very easy to check by visiting any encampment and observing all the bikes and bike parts there). So we get this strange situation when cities build bike lanes and bike parks which are empty because, at most, you can only commute on your bike if your place of work has a secure storage. Enforcing the laws against bike thieves would be 100x more effective in promoting biking than building anything.

queenkjuul 10mo ago
This is ridiculous. Bike thieves are prosecuted here, and parts theft is nowhere near as common as you're implying. Nobody I know here (Chicago) has ever really had a problem with it (bikes entirely being stolen, yeah that happens, but CPD is absolutely not refusing to investigate someone on account of being homeless, that's patently absurd)
- pandaman 10mo ago
  So you are arguing that people you know only had their whole bikes stolen and not wheels/saddles/etc ? I don't think it's a good argument, tbqh. Even if the people you know made a meaningful sample of Chicago population (they don't) they still get bikes stolen and it still means the law is not enforced well enough. And CPD can investigate all they want, CPD, like any other police department, cannot put people in prison. The DA has to press charges and prosecute in the court, which won't happen with any DA in any major city against homeless (otherwise all homeless would have been already in prison).
  - queenkjuul 10mo ago
    No, nobody I know has had their bike stolen. I am acknowledging that bikes are sometimes stolen. CPD has a bike registry and does actively investigate bike theft. And no, the DA does not withhold prosecution for theft based on ones housing status. (Since you seem unaware: being homeless is not illegal)