Stolen Vehicle Database

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by Stig

Please do excuse my thickness, just not grasping what the sites are going to achieve.

An income for the person that owns the sites if anyone clicks on any of the ads on it...

Originally Posted by jonny.boyd

Wow, so many bikes getting stolen from London area!

the site in the OP is a londonbikers website initiative and has just been launched, so unsurprisingly at this stage it's mainly London focused. But yes, there is a LOT of bike crime in London, even taking into account the higher number of bikes, hence the high insurance we pay!

The idea is to use the website nationally though. TBH I haven't followed the rationale behind why it's set up, but it has been done for very genuine reasons, inspired by the site owner having had two bikes stolen himself and several other forum members having lost bikes.

A few things strike me about it:

• It may possibly help you to get your bike back if stolen, though I doubt it will help much on this aspect. Most pro thieves will have changed its identity or taken it overseas, though distinctive parts could be identified. I guess if buyers are more aware they can cross-reference something they are looking to buy against the database - but then as has been said an HPI check does this for bikes anyway.

• The main value in it seems to be to help riders to identify theft hotspots and choose somewhere else to leave their bike. It also acts as a reminder that bikes are vulnerable and to protect them as much as possible.

• Another use would be in lobbying councils/police/etc to do more to tackle bike crime, especially in certain hotspots. The police should already have this kind of info, but at least now it will be in the hand of people who can actively lobby for change, and also push councils for things like rails to lock bikes to in parking bays.

• However I'm not 100% sure about the safety of posting about a bike going missing from my house as it's likely that you would have bought another to replace it and you're effectively giving thieves a postcode to find a bike at. That said, thieves seem to find bikes to steal easily enough without needing something like this, so that may be unfounded...

Hey all, the idea of the site is to help reduce theft, not necessarily by returning the bikes listed on there, as we probably all know they are never to be seen again, but to collect a shed load of data on thefts, and from that educate people on how to keep their bikes.

There's no good sources of data for bike thefts out there (gov data out of date, no detail, other services charge and don't have the detail, etc), so what better way to get it than ask people to put it in themselves? With all this data we can start to build a picture of what, where and how the bikes are going missing, and then draw up stats, showing what works and what doesn't.

The other big purpose is to get all this data on-line for others to use. There's a lot of people campaigning for better security products, better policing and the like, so this will hopefully empower them by giving them good hard stats they can use.

Basically educating people by showing them clearly, without rumour or bull-****, what's working and what isn't, where you should park and what's being done about theft hot-spots. Beyond that, it's up to the community to do something about it with all the info.

Hopefully you can see it a year down the line when it has a ton more data, when there's loads more features on the site, like the ability to subscribe to a post-code and get notifications when bikes are stolen from the area, free vehicle checks, etc... It just needs more data.. So please spread the word


SoulKiss... This is an open venture. Open-source and community run. That's where it's heading. It's non-profit. I'm involved as I've had my third bike stolen now and I've had enough. There's no gain, it's for all of us. Time to level the playing field!

Fizzy Fish... It's international, not London based. It just happens that londonbikers.com backed it and got it out the door. This is for everyone.

Also, we have a warning when adding a location that says be cautious of adding home addresses' for obvious reason. In this case we recommend moving the marker to somewhere less specific but still in the area, say the town centre? We don't want anything bad to happen, but we do need good location data all the same.

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by Amethi

Said Stuff

You will note that I was speaking specifically about the other site.

I applaud the thoughts and sentiment behind your site, but, end of day, its pretty futile.

Me, well if I see someone putting a chain through a wheel but leaving it lying on the ground I'll have a word with them, point out the weakness in their security and leave it up to them.

Good luck with it, but...

I can sort of see what your trying to achieve but can't see it working. If it's for stats in the main, then it has it's flaws. You recommend anyone that has had there bike stolen to report it on the site. But to hide the actual location where it was stolen from. Well then your not going to have true stats.

Personally, if I were to have my bike stolen I wouldn't post it on a website where everyone and anyone can view it. As has been said, if my bike were stolen, I would replace it. That's just advertising the fact there is a potential new bike to steal.

But regardless of my views, best of luck with it.

Stig, thanks, though some compromises will always have to be made. Not all bikes are stolen from peoples homes though, and even if they are the person moves the location slightly, the region is still a valid stat even if the road name isn't.

Also, if your bike is stolen from your home, the thieves already know you're most likely going to replace it.

I appreciate the concern, but any data is better than no data, if even the accuracy is less than 100% when talking about locations.

Personally I'm really interested in finding out about what makes/models and security products are the big losers (full detail on security products coming soon, for now it's grouped into product type).

The site isn't for everyone, some folks will always have a reserved stance on the matter, but I think it's about time we stood up as a community and tackled the problem. The authorities clear can't do the job on their own and we're doing ourselves no favours by parking with no security, in plain-view, etc.

Amethi

Does your site give the user opportunity to contact someone should their bike appear?

For example, say im off to view a bike I've spotted in the local free ads. I turn up and everything appears straight, get home run a check on your site and it flags up as nicked form the other end of the country. Could I then contact the person who reported it in order to colaberate and try getting thier bike returned, or is the site purely information only?

EDIT: Another UI question, Will the site at some point allow for you to search by brand, model, location etc? All I can currently seem to do is view "bikes most recently added"

Owenski, regarding messaging at the moment only publicly via the comments. We're working on a private messaging system though!

And yes, soon everything will be browsable/searchable. The vision is that everything we collect should be browsable and reportable, i.e. view details/latest vehicles for Honda CBR600RR's, or combinations there-of, i.e. CBR600RR's in Paddington, etc. It's all coming, we launched with a minimal feature-set just so we could start collecting data.

Perhaps we need to make this clearer on the site!

Well if it gets enough attention then fingers crossed it devalues the black market bikes, it might not stop bike crime (then again what will). But if its increasing the chances of people getting their bikes back then its got my backing.

Have a pat on the back for doing something about a problem rather than just b1thcing about it.

EDIT: And another suggestion, add a section for "distinguishing marks/identification features" etc basically a list of the mods/adjustments which single that bike out from any others of the same make/model just in case someones cloning plates then selling one on cloned plates.

I like the idea that you would get a heads up if there was a sudden spate of bike thefts in your area, you might have the chance to increase security, especially if you know what methods are being employed, i.e. keys taken from house, garage broken into, etc. otherwise the first you would know about it is probably when the police turn up shake their heads and say, 'yeah theres been a lot of bikes nicked from this area recently, your the 5th person this week...'