Advocacy & Safety - The Bicycle Test... en español

la prueba de la bicicleta is the bicycle test. Apparently the idea is that the "safety" of an area can sort of be determined by how long an unchained bike survives.

see http://www.lapruebadelabicicleta.com/

The site is in spanish, but it is easy to click and see the videos to see how long a bike lasts.

More on the story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081008/od_nm/us_bikes;_ylt=AkYtia7aC4pWonyKG8bIdZas0NUE

Interesting test.

Excellent . I'm watching these. Haven't seen all yet. They'l short so maybe I won't skip a few.
The orig site was slow so here is the link to the videos on youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/liebreamotinada

Problem I see is the when do people consider something abandoned? Not locked ? Not locked pos beater in a certain areas? Beater in the ditch? Not ridden for years in the storage room? Not everyone agrees here. What I would want to see is who steals the expensive bikes with multiple locks on them. The real dedicated thieves. Same problem as with the entrapment issue.

Make thieves afraid of being embarrased on the internet :D

The thing I thought was interesting was how the "thief" cased the bikes first... just about every situation the thief has to pass by 3 times before they do a grab.

That's pretty neat. I've left my bike unlocked for about five minutes on campus three times this semester, and it hasn't been stolen yet. The vast majority of the time, though, I U-lock it.

It makes sense . They can look at the surroundings and at the bike without just suspiciously standing there. Which would not cause any suspision at all in some of the most vibrant city scenes. But I don't think those people are experienced bike thieves. Some of them look very unsecure. I don't think these people have a garage full of stolen bikes somewhere. If there was even a simple lock it would have stopped most of those people.

Another thing I want on camera , who vandalizes bikes for fun??? The lowest form of life . Put a camera on a weekend somewhere.

That's pretty neat. I've left my bike unlocked for about five minutes on campus three times this semester, and it hasn't been stolen yet. The vast majority of the time, though, I U-lock it.

Back in the early '80s when I was attending college, I had a just ugly beater... a rusty single speed girls frame bike with a bent basket on the handle bars. I rode it to college a couple days a week (on the days I wasn't working) and I didn't bother to lock it. It was always there waiting for me after class.

It was a real POS... I paid a 6 pack for it, and after a year or so, I sold it for a 6 pack to another student. It looked terrible, but I had overhauled the hubs and drive train, so it actually worked well. It just didn't have any street appeal. :)

When I was in college in Madison WI the early 80's, I had an old english 3spd that I rode every single day, all day, for at least three years and never locked it. I didn't even have a lock. Usually I just left it somewhere for a couple of hours but many times I left it for a good eight hours or more.

I always brought it in for the night, but during the day, it was outdoors unlocked.

And yes, I think that petty theft of bicycles is a very good barometer for the quality of the city you live in.