LAC LA BICHE - Buy a bike, ride a bike, enjoy a bike ... and unfortunately, for some ... lose a bike.
Bicycle thefts — especially in the Lakeland, where municipal and provincial trails entice more riders with back-country backgrounds and lakeside lookouts — are on the rise. But some new initiatives are hoped to end the rising cycle of bicycle crime.
Lac La Biche County Coun. Lorin Tkachuk is familiar with the initiatives, and the crime.
A member of Lac La Biche County's Safer Municipality Advisory Committee, and also part of the Canadian Municipal Network on Crime Prevention — a group that announed during a webinar Tkachuk attended last week that "bike theft in North America has reached epidemic proportions" — Tkachuk lost two bikes to thieves last year. He is among an estimated two million bike riders in North America affected by bike theft each year.
"As a victim of bike theft myself ..." he began, as he told Lakeland This Week about a local plan in the works to register bikes and even track them when they go missing.
The local initiative, which has similar versions in communities across North America, would use the municipality's ready-to-release Local Emergency Alert System app to register and store bike serial numbers and identification of bicycles belonging to community residents. Tags would then be attached to the bicycles.
"I know that one of the most frustrating parts after having your bike stolen is trying to track it and if you can find it, to prove that it is yours," said Tkachuk, adding that similar programs have been making an impact in what he says is a crime that has a cumulative cost to bike owners and communities across North America into the billions of dollars.
"While the monetary value of the property loss exceeds $500 million, the true cost of bike theft is much higher to our communities," reads an information brief from Tkachuk's recent webinar.
Associated costs of insurance premiums, police investigations, along with reduced bike and tourism activity can mount up quickly.
Creating a program that will help identify stolen bikes and at the same alert potential thieves that the bikes belong to a registry is a win-win, says the councillor — especially in a community seeing a growing number of cyclists due to the growing number of trails being created.
"We're investing a lot into our trail system — like many other communities — and are looking to expand them all the time," said Tkachuk. "We want to promote healthy communities and promote residents and visitors to be active and enjoy our surroundings as much as possible."
The Lac La Biche plan, which is part of a growing bicycle theft deterrant program across North America, comes as Red Deer police have also began a sharp focus on bicycle thefts, even deploying a 'bait bike' program that lures potential bike thieves to a bicycle that is being watched by police.
“Bait bikes are one tool we can use to deter theft and also catch thieves in the act,” said Cpl. Dwayne Hanusich, with the Red Deer RCMP Downtown Unit. “Just like with bait cars, we park our bait bikes in visible areas and conduct surveillance on the bike to see if it will be stolen. If it is, we move in and arrest the thief.”
RCMP recommend bicycle owners take steps to avoid becoming a victim of theft, including keeping it in a locked shed or garage when not using it, securing it with one or more heavy-duty locks that are difficult to cut, removing all accessories such any fitness tracking electronics, lights, and bells when not in use, and avoid parking it in the same place every day.
