“A guy in our office had his bike stolen and spent days scouring ebay and gumtree to try and find it. As a web developer, he decided there was a better way to do this so has designed a site that amalgamates all of the bikes for sale in London daily on ebay and gumtree. If you have your bike stolen, go to his site where you’ll be able to easily search for the bike and see if anyone’s selling it, and you’ll be able to call the police or confront the person etc.” – thanks Will!
The stands are a creative approach to bicycle parking in the city of Wrocław, Poland. Each one features a cast steel design, and is bolted to the ground.
The first stand, which has a curving structure and two integrated hoops, promotes a more secure locking practice. The bicycle frame and both wheels can be locked through the hoops of the bike stand.
The bicycle shaped stand is less secure, as it only allows one wheel and the frame to be locked to the curve of the stand.
Police forces around the country are to deploy bait bikes after a series of successful pilot schemes throughout 2008 and 2009, with London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, also approving the tactic for the capital earlier this month.
‘Bait bikes’ or decoy or tracker bikes, are positioned by police in theft hot-spots. They are intentionally badly locked, or even unlocked, and are fitted with hidden GPS devices, letting officers trace them to the thieves, or better still to a lock-up or warehouse used by gangs to store lots of stolen bikes.
For more info, check out this article from The Guardian.
The first docking station for the new TFL bicycle hire scheme has been installed in the city. Southwark Street is home to 36 new cycle hire docks before the scheme rolls out on the 31st July.
The site is close to London Bridge tube station, and in walking distance of Borough Market.
Nokia is developing a bicycle powered mobile phone charger for its handsets. The device, consisting of charger unit, handlebar mount, dynamo, and 2mm charger jack, will be priced around €15 and should be available at the of the year.
Nokia says that 10 minutes of pedalling at 6mph (10kph) is enough to power 28 minutes of talk time or 37 hours of standby.
The kit could be useful as a sat nav system for bicycles, using Nokia’s Ovi Maps turn-by-turn directions, without having to worry about running out of battery on longer rides.
Researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute have created bicycle helmet that stinks when damaged.
Helmet manufacturers state that once the helmet becomes cracked, the integrity of the helmet safety structure is compromised and becomes less effective.
Fraunhofer have come up with a process that injects microcapsules of malodorous oils into the helmet itself, causing it to smell when damaged, thus alerting the user that it’s time to replace it.
“My friend had his wheels stolen. A week later, the guy who looks after the building next to his turns up with his wheels. And my friend finds this on YouTube of the same guy stealing them!”
In February 2009, Adam Thorpe (Director of Bikeoff) presented Bikeoff: Research and resources for design of secure bike stands at the University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI). This presentation of Bikeoff research and design resources was given to students and also at a stakeholder seminar to inform design responses from the University of Portsmouth, Wayne Hemingway and also a Portsmouth City Council Collaborative Project to design secure cycle parking furniture for the City of Portsmouth.
Thorpe, A. and Gamman, L. Are You Sitting Comfortably? in Saville G (ed) International CPTED Association, Newsletter, Vol 9, in press.
Article on the role of design in reducing anti-social behaviour linked to public seating written in response to an invitation by Gregg Saville, the Editor of CPTED’s International newsletter. The newsletter communicates with the crime prevention community, particularly looking at crime prevention through environmental design.
The Bikeoff research project has provided consultancy regarding the design and specification of secure indoor bike parking for the Kings Cross CSM campus. Bikeoff has shared research, case studies and design guidance with Stanton Williams Architects and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Estate Management. Bikeoff continue to collaborate in the delivery of this project – due for completion in 2010.
