Watch Video (Rose Ades, Head of TFL’s Cycle Centre of Excellence)

‘Putting the Brakes on Bike Theft’ was a cycling and security seminar presented on the 3rd of October by Transport for London’s Cycle Centre for Excellence (CCE) in association with the Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC) and the London Bicycle Film Festival 2008 (LBFF).

The seminar was of interest to professionals responsible for delivery of design provision, management and policy for public space and cycling infrastructure. The seminar promoted a multi-agency approach to tackling the issue of cycle theft and promotion of cycle use and enjoyment of the public realm.

This multi-agency approach – which has drawn upon design to help make a difference - has been seen to be effective at cycle theft reduction in recent years and has contributed to the increases in cycle use in London.
Between 2003 and 2005 increases in cycle use matched increases in cycle theft. This period saw the implementation of multiple cycle theft reduction initiatives by various agencies including, Transport for London’s Cycle Centre for Excellence and the Design Against Crime Research Centre’s Bikeoff project.

The Bikeoff research initiative has delivered, in collaboration with TfL’s CCE, and the street management and transport teams of several of London’s Boroughs, tools and resources to facilitate multi-stakeholder communication, collaboration and evaluation in relation to delivery of cycle theft reduction and cycling infrastructure provision.

Presentations:

Adam Thorpe ‘Catalyzing Anti-Theft Bike, Bike Parking and Information Design For The 21st Century’
Download here

Aiden Sidebottom ‘What YOU Know About Bike Parking’
Download here

Shane D Johnson ‘Community Orientated Policing Service (COPS) Guide on Bicycle Theft’
Download here

Paul Ekblom ‘What Theory Knows Is…Using theory to analyse crime risks and generate design guidance for secure bike parking’

Download here

The Smartlock designed by Mike Lambourn (one of DACRC’s Interns) is doing the rounds on the design blogs at the moment. The lock incorporates Smartwater and a dye into the housing so when the perpetrator tries to cut the lock they, and their tools, will be covered with a liquid which contains tiny uniquely numbered identification tags aiding the authorities by linking the criminal to the crime. The same technology is currently used to allow banks and businesses to hunt down criminals. See what Bikeoff think of it on the Design Resource.

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The New York Times has created a light-hearted field guide for identifying different NY cycling cultures, take a look here. Which one are you?

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Yahoo! is releasing a bunch of bikes into the wild with built in cameras and GPS that take photos every 60 seconds the upload the results to Flickr. Check out the Start Wering Purple website and blog. Its even possible to check out where the bikes are.

The only thing is the name Start Wearing Purple makes me think of the song Start Wearing Purple by Gogol Bordello and i’ve been terrorising everyone in the office with it since…..

Via Stringwise

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