Globe City Weekly on bike path assaults and bicycle theft

[ron_newman]

Today's Boston Globe City Weekly has two articles on subjects that have gotten a lot of attention here on LJ:

Thieves rack up bikes, locked or not

Bike path assaults shake square

Comments

[righteousness-1.livejournal.com]

According to the police, there's been a 20% increase in bike thefts possibly in line with the increase in ridership and on the bike path, according to the police, these two incidences on the bike path were the only ones and the alleged perps have been arrested. Is the sky falling?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Since the Boston Globe didn't feel the need to do so, I'm going to go ahead and include my little bulleted list here of things to do to avoid bike theft in any area:

- Always use a U-lock or a New York Chain lock. No exceptions, ever. Even for five minute increments. And always make sure you lock it to the FRAME and a SOLID FIXED OBJECT (if I had a dollar for every bike I saw locked to the links in a chain-link fence...)
- Do not leave your bike locked up outside overnight or while you are at work.
- If you do have to lock your bike up outside overnight, do not own a shiny, expensive bike with a new paint job, or get a second, crummy looking bike to leave outside.
- Register your bike (http://www.nationalbikeregistry.com/register.html) and take note of the serial number.
- Lock it in a conspicuous location where someone trying to defeat your lock will be in plain view of lots of people.

Now with that list in mind, I'm a bit incensed that bike shops and the city are not doing more to help deal with the problem, for example:
- Provide bicycle storage facilities!!!! OMG! We have so many fancy parking facilities for cars! Would a secure facility at such highly trafficked areas as the Davis Square T stop really be so much to ask?
- Surveillance cameras. Obviously not every locked up bike can be monitored this way, but a SINGLE CAMERA at the Davis Square T station would go a long way toward incarcerating bike thieves in Somerville. I'm certain of it. Also, again with the things we seem to be readily able to do with car parks that we somehow can't manage to do with bike racks.
- Bike stores should strongly discourage you from leaving the store without registering your bike. There should be a way to register on site and it should be all but required in order to take your bike home. One of the reasons people bother to steal bikes is because it's difficult to prove that they are in fact stolen. This would completely remove that incentive if it were done consistently. Also, most stolen bikes are ultimately recovered, but most bike owners are not introduced to the bike registry system until their bike has already been stolen.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2008/09/arrest-in-memor.html
http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2008/08/fake-gangs-real.html
http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2008/08/shot-in-the-fac.html
I think that the Somerville Police are just a little busy right now! Not to make light of bike theft, but it does kind of pale in comparison. I think we should all be a lot more worried about the news stories above.