Copenhagen bike love and bike theft.
New discovery! Have you seen these colorful bike parking places outside Magasin du Nord? I just discovered these, and of course I had to take a picture. And then go into Magasin to do some shopping.
But the city needs desperately more bike parking spots and certainly more creative parking spots such as these.
It may sound almost funny for someone who has not lived in a cycle-city when cyclists say "Damn there is nowhere to park my bike" but it does happen more and more often.
But there is this theory, which according to it, if more parking places are built, more the demand for parking places is going to be always more so the existing infrastructure will never be enough.
But to keep it simple, we do need more parking places.
There is this interesting study, on bicycle theft in Denmark, which you can find in this link :
http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-050713-050037/unrestricted/REL8004_Biketheft_Report.pdf
Interesting facts from this project is that daily there are 55 bikes stolen in Copenhagen and nationally, every 7 minutes a bike is missing.
Oops.And 75% of all Dane cyclists had at least one bike stolen. There are plenty of available measures to reduce these but still at least Denmark is not well organized in managing this problem.
At least that is what the statistics say, where all the rates from bicycle theft are increasing the last year.
My bike was stolen last week and I am having a hard time recovering from this, so I am all stuffed with these surveys to know what could I do to prevent this the next time.
Turns out, these are some tips, derived from the above project, to keep your bike within your ownership as long as possible:
1. Choosing a lock.
The U-locks are the best ones as they are harder to break, unlike the cable locks which are only recommended as additional to the U-locks.
But the U-lock does not secure your bike on something stable. That is why you need the cable lock, or else someone can just lift and take it, carrying it away.
Also, a chain is a good, strong alternative to the cable.
2. Choose the parking place.
It would be preferably one of the bike parking places but if none available (very common) choose something stable to lock your bike on.
Prefer a place which is in common sight so the thief would be noticed while trying to steal your bike.
In front of shops and cafes maybe, and less in huge, chaotic parking places near the train stations where hundreds of bikes are parked there since forever.
3. Choose your bike.
There are two approaches :
In the first one, if your bike stands out, for example it is colourful, different, well maintained etc, it attracts thieves. Same goes if your bike is expensive.
But a second approach claims that if your bike is ordinary then it can be stolen and re-sold without being recognized.
So you will not recognize it even if you see it passing in front of you.
I am not an expert on this, but in my opinion, keep expensive bikes either at home, or locked with super-secure locks, on super-secure parking places.
As super-secure things (locks or parking places) generally don't exist then, just don't make big investments on bikes. And if you do, maybe use a registering system or some kind of GPS technology to keep them safe.
4. Don't forget to take your lights off the bike.There is no way that you will find them where you left them.
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Photos by me !
thnx for the tips!
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