11 August 2010
This blog nabs hire bike thief
A hire bike thief has been caught, TfL tell us, thanks to this blog.
Last Saturday we posted a picture of a hire bike we'd spotted suspiciously situated in a canalside garden in north London, with its logo painted out (right).
TfL's sleuths - the TfL-funded, 30-strong MPS Cycle Task Force - saw the blog and moved into action faster than you can say Bicycle Repair Man (right).
Within two hours, TfL's press person Silka tells us, they had swooped and made an arrest. A man has been cautioned on suspicion of theft. (Apparently, it was a display model rather than a street model, but had still been nicked.)
So if you see anything suspicious - such as a man riding a bicycle wearing a cape with his underpants on outside his trousers, or even a hire bike where it shouldn't be - help the fight against evil by reporting it to the hire bike website.
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Good work. I know one of the "reasons why is won't work here" was it was expected that they would be vandalised/stolen. If this can be nipped in the bud early doors then the scheme might work leading to a better cycling environment for everybody.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that we just accept that thing will get vandalised? Same reason that people accept that it isn't safe to cycle on the road so they drive everywhere and add to the problem. Bloody apathy.Rant over
Great to hear that the MPS Task force is having an impact. Perhaps we need them out in the outer Boroughs (not sure if they cover them?) I was pretty shocked to read the following blog post on the number of reported cycle thefts in my Borough - 2,296 since 2007!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.richmondlcc.co.uk/2010/08/06/are-you-one-of-the-2296/
Last time I tried using the online contact form on the hire bike website it didn't work :-(
ReplyDeleteHow about this for suspicious - the cycle hire scheme has stolen £8 from my account in "charges" for last week even though I didn't use a bike at all.
ReplyDeleteI called them yesterday morning and was put through to an overflow call centre because they'd been receiving more calls than they were able to cope with. When I suggested that this might be because they were charging people for services they hadn't used, they confessed that, "there have been one or two issues like this".
The call centre I spoke to said that as they were only an overflow they couldn't deal with my issue but asked for my details so they could call me back. No one has.
There we go. It's on this blog. How quickly are dealing with that, tfl?
Another "stolen" bike - these guys even had the chutzpah to write about it in a local newspaper - http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23864991-paris-says-vive-la-bicyclette-de-boris.do
ReplyDeleteThe hire bike that went to Paris wasn't stolen, just on a long hire. I don't think there are any rules about how far you go, just a limit of 24 hours which should be plenty for a trip to Paris and back.
ReplyDeleteI've written a blog about the illicit thrill of a boris bike, maybe they just got intoxicated by the unattainability? And fell in love?
ReplyDeletehttp://thetrustysteed.blogspot.com/2010/09/committing-adultery-with-boris.html