This is my wheel lock as of 1 hour ago :-p
I’ve mentioned a few times that bicycle theft is quite a problem in the Netherlands, certainly in Amsterdam. The Dutch c.q. Amsterdammers (young and old) have grown accustomed to this pesky ‘little’ problem that has steadily planted itself in the Dutch cyclists’ conscience & social fabric over the last, say, 50 years:
- Using beater bikes for their daily rides to work, the shops etc, but with heavy duty locks, usually worth ten to twenty times the bike itself, if not more. Not that they drool over their crappy bikes, but because for exactly that first point: they NEED it. Every day. Such a spoiler otherwise.
- There are still too many junkies roaming the streets with theft on their minds to sell 2 wheelers to students and others to get their fix. That, and there are actually bicycle thief gangs in vans driving around in neighborhoods during the day, doing hit-and-runs on bicycles that are not locked up to something solid. You get the idea.
Many tourists drool over our bicycle parking lots / garages and other facilities. See above why we feel we need them…and consider that we have to maximize on the space in a very dense city/country, where on average 1 person owns about 1.5 bikes (estimates in NL vary between 18 and 20 million bikes for 16.5 million people. In Amsterdam it’s 2.5 bikes per inhabitant).
On June 4 this year, the government started a new awareness and prevention campaign, urging people to register their bike through a new kind of state-of-the-art tagging service, aiming for a reduction in bicycle thefts by 100.000 by 2010, now hovering at 750.000 a year, and urging people to improve on locking up their bikes.
But…wait for it…for this campaign to sort any effects, people need to report theft of their bicycle to the police. Sounds reasonable? Let me tell you it’s far from it, it’s a joke.
Many, many Amsterdammers don’t feel it’s going to help in this town. I’m one of them. First, the police here are quite a bunch of pencil heads (ask me and I’ll tell you, long story and not just my experience). Second, expecting any progress on getting your bike back is like watching The Big Lebowski, that scene where he retrieves his car at the police impound lot and asks: “Any news on my briefcase and stuff that got stolen from my trunk.” “….Oh, yeah…(chuckle)…let me get back on that, I’ll ask the investigative team who are working around the clock on that case.” (Not word for word, but close enough). They love writing their petty “We Have To Reach Our Monthly Quota”-tickets, but no cop of this generation will see bicycle theft as a real priority.
It’s a hard thing to promote. It’s like a virtuous circle: people need to register their bikes in droves, but they historically won’t. And the police depend heavily on that to make any progress whatsoever.
My chain lock
Nevertheless, that new campaign kicked off with a real(!)/former bike thief touring the Netherlands, showing people how their bikes get nicked (this person is referred to by the Cyclists Union spokeswoman as: “He has no criminal record, but has deeply familiarized himself with the subject”…ROFL) ads on TV, an official informative but clunky website where you can initiate your ‘Bicycle Passport’ and posters plastered around town:
Where is my bicycle?
My bike’s nicked!
I’ve found my bicycle!
What is your town/city/government doing about bicycle theft and in what way do you have to make an extra effort to prevent your bike from being stolen?
WHAT TO DO NOW?