Re: [Ebbc-Talk] [Discuss] bike theft discussion

The original article just says why it is so easy to steal a bicycle.

HIDDEN IDENTIFICATION:
Identification systems ONLY WORK if someone is truly interested in contacting an original owner of their stolen bicycle.
When people buy a bicycle at a discount, at a garage sale, via a Classified ad, etc.
they often suspect the item may have been "preused."
If so, a buyer would look for such identification markers and scrape them off, repaint the bike, etc.
Many bikes are dismantled with parts strewn around to build a new bike that looks nothing such as the original.

I agree that the microDot method is "more clever" than other methods (Boomerang for example.
But it relies on honest people taking the time to want to search out a prior owner.

Would the police do that? Takes too much effort to search for a hidden "dot" that may or may not exist.


GPS:
A better system involves GPS, but those require power to operate.
If you knew where your bike was (see it on a map... at least before the criminal detects the device and removes it)
you would have a better chance to get the police to investigate the theft...
similar to the iPhone/iPad theft recoveries you hear about in the news.


http://data911.com/web-avl.html
The company for whom I work sells such devices, in bulk, to law enforcement for use with police, fire, ambulance, motorcycle, etc.
mostly for the purposes of dispatching the nearest vehicle to an incident.
The devices are fairly inexpensive technology; but require a skilled technical installer to install the device (thus expensive) onto 
an electrical system safely and to connect other detection sensors (motor off, lightbar (or siren) on, camera on, etc.) and require 
annual fees.
Such a device would make the bike appear on a "secure" Internet Website via a Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or other Web browser viewable 
by the bike owner.

If I had such a device on my bike before it was stolen, I could have watched to where the bike was driven ...
until the thief dismantled the GPS device. Having a motor and additional wires on a bike would be easy to see,
and easy to cut the wires (dismantle it.)


REGISTRATION:
The state government is "not interested" in bike licensing registration due to the lack of a motor.
All you have to do is pass unwanted state rules that would require every bike to need a motor thus increasing the price of bikes to 
everyone.
Then the government would be interested in forcing registration fees on all bicyclists.
Then since all bikes have motors, you could wire up a GPS device.

Jim


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Jon Spangler
Cc: BikeAlameda List ; EBBC Discussion List
Sent: Fri, Sept 28, 2012 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Discuss] bike theft discussion

Here's the original blog  post:

http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/30393216796/what-happens-to-stolen-bicycles

I am still interested in your  evaluation of  the identidots technology, too.

Thanks,

Jon

On Sep 28, 2012, at 9:21 PM, Jon Spangler wrote:
Cyclists,
I started a LinkedIn discussion on bike theft based on some economics research here:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Why-are-so-many-bikes-91090%2ES%2E167948448?view=&gid=91090&type=member&item=167948448&goback=%2Egde_91090_member_163617268%2Egmp_91090&report%2Esuccess=62WUlrnddR6bgwSqXhj6sMCTLzs-Mtpi3fLJWbNsWtuooxKwgTL8r5xsvgkbozKwEkXBakadko

One of the responses was from a company called identidots:

http://www,identidots.com

What do you make of this technology?  Would you buy and use it?

Jon

Writer/editor
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"She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life."
  —Frances E. Willard, in A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle (1895)

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