thelondonpaper
by: Hannah Summers
16 June 2009

In a trial designed to measure the honesty of recession-hit Britons, researchers planted bikes in cities throughout the country and timed how long it took before they were swiped.

London came out bottom in the honesty stakes after opportunistic thieves struck in just 17 minutes at London Bridge station.

The location was just one of 10 across Britain where unsecured bikes were left in busy thoroughfares.

One high-profile victim of London’s bike-theft problem is Conservative leader David Cameron, who’s had his bicycle stolen twice in the past year, once from outside a shop and once from the railings outside his house.

Meanwhile, the citizens of Liverpool were deemed the most honest after thieves took just under four hours to strike.

The results for both cities fell way above and below the national average of two hours and 22 minutes.

An estimated 30,000 bikes are stolen in London every year and insurance giant More Than – which carried out the research – claim that only five per cent of these are ever recovered.

Peter Markey, Marketing Director for the company, said: “The experiment was designed to raise awareness about the growing problem of bike theft and also to help us identify cities where there is a particularly high risk.

City Time taken to steal bike
Liverpool, Matthew St – 3 hours 52 minutes
Bristol, Bedminster area – 3 hours 15 minutes
Manchester, Arndale Shopping Centre – 2 hours 57 minutes
Newcastle, Eldon Shopping Centre – 2 hours 25 minutes
Portsmouth, Southsea area – 2 hours 12 minutes
Cardiff, Capitol Shopping Mall – 2 hours 10 minutes
Birmingham, The Rag Market – 1 hour 55 minutes
Glasgow, Buchanan Street – 1 hour 30 minutes
London, London Bridge Station – 17 minutes

*National Average: 2 hours 22 minutes

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