A recent social experiment has shown members of the public witnessing a cycle theft but not intervening.
Cycle theft is on the rise in London with 22,464 pedal bike thefts reported to the Metropolitan Police in 2011, compared to 21,951 in 2010.
Bike Dock Solutions sent a hidden camera crew to an east London market location, where a stooge was filmed ‘stealing’ a bicycle at pre-arranged times during the day, in front of numbers of witnesses. The results can be viewed on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiXphQBYpBE
Despite over ten ‘thefts’ taking place throughout a 60-minute period, nobody intervened or interacted with the ‘thief’. On average it took nearly three minutes for people to recognise that a theft had taken place and, at the busiest times, up to 15 people could walk past the theft without either recognising the act or intervening.
Based on police crime statistics from 2010, a report released in June 2011 suggests that bicycle theft costs British cyclists around £80m a year. The same report put the total number of reported stolen bikes in the UK at 115,147.
The study also suggested that only 20% of cycle thefts are reported to the police – meaning the true number of bicycles stolen in the UK each year is actually closer to 533,000.
James Nash, Director of Bike Dock Solutions, said: “Although more and more people are being encouraged to take up cycling, they are still being deterred by the lack of secure cycle parking facilities".
Hats off to James and his team for highlighting this depressing but important issue. What do you think can be done to prevent more bicycles from being stolen in the capital and beyond?
