This study saw 70% of its bikes stolen in six months!

Two institutes mapped bikes in Amsterdam to understand the evolution of thefts, not expecting this rate, but that’s great for the study’s results!

Initially, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and the AMS Institute (Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Mobility Solutions) wanted to understand where stolen bikes went.

Amsterdam: the capital of stolen bikes?

Both organizations placed 100 second-hand bikes in various locations in Amsterdam, secured with a standard lock. They aimed to gather examples of stolen bikes and their fates, but did not expect such a high number of thefts. Between June and November 2021, researchers recorded the disappearance of 70 out of their 100 bikes!

The Dutch capital is unfortunately notorious for this phenomenon. “Everyone in Amsterdam, and even in Cambridge [a university town in England], has experienced leaving a bike somewhere and not finding it when returning,” says Titus Venverloo, one of the study’s authors.

Although almost every resident owns one or more bikes, 11,000 bikes are stolen annually. A figure that is heavily underestimated according to the authors, who cite 28,500 bikes according to authorities, or even 80,500 bikes based on local users’ reports!

Almost all bikes stay within the region

Of course, all bikes included some form of GPS tracking device. Of the 70 stolen bikes, 68 remained in the Amsterdam area. The “ trackers” found that about a dozen bikes were left at known black market resale sites. Between 3 and 6 bikes stayed in second-hand bike shops with established clientele.

For the rest, even if the bikes remained in the suburbs of Amsterdam, tracking was difficult. However, 22 bikes were seen moving in areas close to black market resale networks. These data have been shared with city officials to address the issue.

Read also: In Rouen, new secure bike parking facilities