mythos

Most recent activity

• Stolen bikes

  in General • 14 years, 2 months

  

  playing Devils Advocate here, but if they were to employ a team of people to do this task, it would still mean every bike needing to be registered. It's hard to enact legislation for something that exists.
  What if someone's got an old bike they hardly use? They're not going to pay to register it.
  Where do you draw the line? Bike crime exists out of London. Where do the marshals check? Zone 1 only? Out to Zone 6? That's a huge geographical entity to cover. What if someone from outside this zone brings their bike into London for the day- it will get locked if it isn't registered.
  Also, we all know bike locks can be removed by force- the theives will just start snipping the Polices locks. They might not wheel the bikes around anymore, but chuck them into the back of a van. You can't stop every van.
  I know that wouldn't fancy a £10 increase on my council tax to pay for this, and I'm a pretty keen cyclist. Imagine all those who don't cycle and have no interest in it having to pay another £10 on their council tax to cover this- they'd be livid- and that's without saying there's many better things my council tax could go towards.

  very valid points, especially that changes like this need time to be approved and enforced. and there are a million more detail to think about - i was only making suggestions but the city on the government nationwide needs to think of workable solutions that address those details. and this takes time..

  okay, another suggestion from my side. why dont they make proper public (or private) bike parks or cages that has a guard and you need to pay for it. i've seen them in Beijing (it was less than 1p to park for an hour if i remember correctly) and they have them in Amsterdam as well. the one in London Bridge is £1.5 an hour or a day, cant remember, and anyone can get inside and take someone else's bike, there is no guard, so why is the £1.5 exactly?!! Liverpool st. station, no guard.

  the office i used to work in had a shed with the key kept with the building security guards that they only give to those with building IDs, it was free for us but too small to accommodate all the bikes.. the cage was strong enough, no one can break in.. why dont they make it mandatory for all buildings to do that? some hotels have bike racks in the car park which can only be accessed through security, pedestrians are not allowed. all buildings should have this and enough to hold the bikes that Boris wants us to use..

• Stolen bikes

  in General • 14 years, 2 months

  

  I would say the downfall here being that the OB simply do not the manpower to stop everyone riding a bike to check their licence. It's easily done on vehicles as the ANPR system can automatically check the registration mark and alert the cops if need be, but unless you forced each bike to display a licence plate (impossible to enforce with the sheer number of old bikes that would be exempt from new legislation) it would not be possible.

  Also, could you deal with the hassle of being stopped every time you ride a bike to check it's legit. It would piss me off, and even more so for those many legitimate bike riders that may not be- how can we say this in a PC way?- from the Met's favoured racial group.

  all this can be solved, i dont work for the city but they are the once who can come up with solutions.

  no need to have a plate on each bike, but

  if you say POs are expensive and/or cant ask everyone for a licence then the city can have small trucks or maybe marshals who go around every morning for example and check any parked bikes, if the bike doesnt have a licence that shows up on their system, they impound or maybe lock in a way that the owner can only release after paying a visit to the police station

  these are only suggestions but seem to me that the city can come up with solutions if it wants to.

  also if people stop buying from thieves who have no licence then the market for stolen bikes will be cut down

  we are already paying enough tax, no! hell you can add a registration fee, like £10 or more to assist with the cost of manpower to do this. wont make much of a difference when you're buying a £600 bike

• Stolen bikes

  in General • 14 years, 2 months

  

  just knew about this forum today.
  hate the idea of being scared to lock a good bike in a public place without it getting nicked!
  the city should do something, no?!
  why dont they enforce some sort of online registration system where when you buy a bike from a store, you must register it and then get a licence that has the bike frame number and your name. a police officer can stop and ask bikers about this licence any time. its like car registration, but with much less hassle because you dont need a MOT test or payment. when you sell the bike you can transfer the registration number online as well. this should give more power to the police and the community especially those who want to buy a bike and demand the seller to see the registration licence. this will control the whole thing instead of the power being with them stealing scumbags!
  do you think?