Yes, I know I can walk around it, hence the mildly infuriating. Still a d*ck move
I might be too american, but I’m more concerned about leaving a bike outside unlocked without a fear to have it stolen. How does that work?
They are actually locked. In the Netherlands bikes usually have ring locks attached to the frame that lock just the rear wheel. It’s way more convenient, you can quickly lock your bike and pop into a store. It’s of course less safe, so especially in larger cities and at train stations people do lock their bike to something.
Example of lock ring lock: https://www.google.com/search?q=axa+ring+lock&biw=412&bih=712&dpr=2.63
I am an american but i think it works like this:
- streets are bike friendly
- more reasonable to just bike everywhere so everyone does
- city may provide free bikes to use
- more demand for bikes, more competition, less expensive bikes
- less bike theft in general as a result
- these aren’t $4k+ bespoke bikes
- something something socialized healthcare something something better labor laws something something higher taxes but a better quality of life. Why steal? Be happy.
We don’t have these things here. Except for expensive bikes, that’s all we have. That’s why I got these boltcutters…
Haha no, bikes get stolen all the time and the cheap ones are easiest to sell. These bikes are in fact locked
In the Netherlands they get stolen all the time as well. Locked or not. We have bike thieves that just load the whole bike including lock into a van and drive off with it.
Either that, or if attached to a pole/bike rack with a chain or bar lock, they’ll just pull out the old angle grinder and go to work.
Happens everywhere, happens in broad daylight, happens when there’s people around, and usually doesn’t raise a lot of suspicion because “might be someone who’s lost their keys”.
Since there’s 4 bicycles for every person living in the Netherlands, the key strategy is just making sure your bicycle is a little less fancy than the one locked up next to yours. Thieves tend to go for the ones they can resell for the most amount of money. In other words: Hide in the numbers.
Here it comes paired with a surveillance state that will catch you stealing a bicycle and have the cops waiting for you at your home before you can even reach it.
Nah. In Copenhagen we lock them like this, too, but you’d never get the police to check video to maybe identify the theif. Rape or violence, sure, but not bike theft.
