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Friday, May 26, 2006

No wonder bicycles are stolen in Toulouse

This morning I learned (to my big surprise) that bicycles aren't tagged in Toulouse. The police wouldn't get anything out of checking bicycles to see if they're stolen, since they have no way of identifying a bike.

In Copehagen, where I'm from, bikes have registration numbers engraved. This way the police can check whether bikes are stolen by simply looking up the registration number in their registry.

I haven't yet bought a bike here in Toulouse since I've been warned about the high risks of having it stolen, but with the completely insane traffic we have nowadays, it is getting more and more attractive to purchase a bike.

PS: The organisation www.fubicycode.org
is trying to get bike tagging introduced in France.

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12:56 | Permalink | Comments (8)

8 Comments:

  • I have a feeling that tagged bikes are strictly used in the stolen high-end bike world...

    A bi-monthly comment to a bi-monthly post ;-)

    Posted by Anonymous dalager, at 26/5/06 14:20

  • And there you go! If you throw together some RoR magic (Ajax required) I'll go register BikeNickr.com! I can already imagine the headline in Wired "The last business area to be hit by the tagging craze!"

    PS: If we ensure that the implementation is sufficiently generic to allow users to add new business areas (I'm thinking CarNickr.com and such), we can be sure to hit the long tail. The investors would love it!

    Posted by Blogger Thomas, at 26/5/06 17:00

  • last year, they tagged the bicycle for free at the "fete du vĂ©lo", this year it will be next week-end (June 3rd) I'll go and see if they do it again !

    Posted by Anonymous wildmary, at 26/5/06 21:48

  • Hey Marie,

    As far as I see it tagging is only one part of the solution. Once the tags are on the bikes, the police will have to implement procedures for using the directory of tags. In Copenhagen the police check parked bikes and they can even stop people on bikes to check that the bikes they're riding aren't registered as being stolen. As long as the police do not use the tags, the tags wont do any good as far as I see it?!?

    It's worth noting that if the police is ever to manage and use a central bike tag directory, they must have the possibility to work with one single tagging strategy. One cannot expect the police to learn and use multiple strategies for tagging. How do you verofy that tag numbers are unique?

    So although I completely support efforts to tag bikes in Toulouse, I do not believe in the success of a system that is not based on one single tagging strategy and that does not have a police municipale budget.

    Posted by Blogger Thomas, at 27/5/06 09:44

  • interesting, I knew that it was very effective in ohter countries but I did'nt know how tags were used... I don't really know how it work here in fact, I think bikes tagged are declared to the police so they can recognize them when they found one... I think that's a beginning and hope it will evolve and be effective like in Denmark !

    Posted by Anonymous wildmary, at 28/5/06 12:44

  • Considering the fact that the police in Toulouse rarely give fines to the many illegally parked cars, I doubt that they will start checking bikes. If however it became a priority, I doubt that it would work effectively unless if they had one central bike tag directory.

    PS: Lots of bikes are still stolen in Denmark, but I most definitely believe that the tagging system makes it a bit harder on the thieves.

    Posted by Blogger Thomas, at 28/5/06 19:34

  • I haven't had as many bikes stolen anywhere as in Toulouse. It comes to... let me count... 5 ... in less than 3 years. I wonder where they all go.

    Posted by Blogger Flemming Funch, at 29/5/06 01:08

  • According to this article, nobody really knows where the stolen bikes go.

    Posted by Blogger Thomas, at 29/5/06 10:24

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