It’s a ritual that Nicolas* has undergone every evening, or almost, for the past five years. After his day at work, this 50-year-old from Bordeaux connects to Facebook, and consults the latest messages sent to the group “Blocked bikes Bordeaux”, which he himself created in 2017 after the disappearance of his son-in-law’s bike. Testimonial after testimonial, the man relays each photo of mountain bikes, bicycles or other electrically assisted bicycles (VAE) declared stolen by cyclists in his city, reports dubious profiles of dealers on the Internet, or advises victims on the steps to follow. in case of theft… And the work is colossal.
“In one night, I already have eight announcements waiting for declaration of theft”, assures Nicolas this Tuesday morning, after having validated “no less than 38 announcements between October 16 and 24 last”. “I am now at 2,600 subscribers on Facebook, and the messages do not stop. It has been constantly increasing for five years”, he explains, determined to stop the phenomenon, as best they can. “Sometimes it’s like a treasure hunt. Either the bike is resold directly on the Internet or in certain markets in the city, and the community manages to find it. Or it is destined to be taken apart and resold separately, which which often happens for high-end bikes. And there, it’s more complicated”.
While cycling increased by 11% in the first eight months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, and by 33% compared to 2019, according to the barometer published on September 7 Thanks to the Vélo & Territoires network, many groups similar to Nicolas’s have been created in Lille, Strasbourg, Nantes and Paris. “I had two bicycles stolen near Porte de Clignancourt on Saturday evening after midnight. They were firmly attached”, regrets a member of the group “Vélos voles Paris/Banlieue”, supporting photos, while another attempts to trace the origin of a used bicycle found on the Internet before contacting the seller for a transaction. “Between the fear of buying a stolen bike and the fear of never finding your own after tying it up in the street, theft has become one of the main obstacles to cycling”, deplores Olivier Schneider, President of the Federation of Bicycle Users (FUB).
In September 2020, a study carried out by the 6T research office among adults residing in an agglomeration of more than 200,000 inhabitants thus indicated that a third of equipped cyclists had already had their bicycle stolen at least once. , and that this incident would have caused the abandonment of cycling for 8% of them. At the same time, 46% of cyclists said that they sometimes “give up using this mode of transport for fear of theft” – a proportion that reaches 60% among those who have already been victims.
“There are no more limits”
According to the latest official data on bicycle theft, published by INSEE in 2019 in its “Living environment and safety” survey, 361,000 thefts and attempted thefts would have been listed in 2018. “But since then, the testimonies of our members and our various surveys tell us that this figure has increased sharply: I would rather speak of 500,000 bikes stolen in France each year”, believes Olivier Schneider. Between the explosion in demand and the increase in the price of certain bicycles – count on average between 1500 and 2000 euros for a VAE -, the president of the FUB also wishes to warn about the different profiles of thieves. “It ranges from simple drunken revelers who need a mountain bike to get home on Saturday night, to the international network that dismantles, stores and resells the equipment in spare parts, all the way to lone petty thieves who specialize in understanding that ‘there is a real black market on the Internet’. According to him, the flight techniques would also be “more and more daring”. “Some even go so far as to saw off the hoops with heavy equipment to detach the bikes. Others already know what they are looking for, and are aiming for high-end bikes that they promised for sale before they even had them. stolen. There is no limit”.
Cyclist in the Paris region, Emilie has suffered several times. In ten years, this marketing director has had four bicycles stolen, for damage she estimates at around 2,500 euros. The first time, this Francilienne finds only the light spiral padlock of her “cut” bike after having attended the half-marathon of Vincennes. The next two times, the thieves managed to break the big chains in which she had invested to attach her equipment to the street furniture. “It happened once in the middle of the street, and once in front of the RER … They were systematically attached, sometimes even by two padlocks, and no one ever saw anything”. After several disappointments, Emilie finally chose to invest in an electric bike at more than 1600 euros last winter. But in September, it will be stolen from him in just a few seconds. “I left it against the door of a business for two minutes while I was dropping off a package. It went extremely quickly, I didn’t see anything. Since then, I’ve realized that the bike has become like a telephone laptop or a handbag: if we don’t watch it, it leaves in the minute”, she regrets.
“You should always padlock your bike, even for a stop of a few minutes in broad daylight in a busy place, in a place deemed safe, an enclosed or private place”, reminds the Paris Police Prefecture to L’Express, indicating that 13,018 bicycle thefts were recorded in 2021 in Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne, compared to 12,240 in 2020. surveys carried out on bicycle thefts do not report organized networks in the Paris conurbation”, nevertheless assures the Prefecture, while 12,002 thefts have already been recorded in this area during the first nine months of the year 2022. try to find the stolen bicycles as quickly as possible, the police officers also specify that all new and used cycles sold in France by professionals – with the exception of models for children – must be marked, since January 1 2021, with a unique number registered in the “national cycle file identified”. In ten months, 3.6 million bicycles have been “marked” in France, according to figures communicated to L’Express by the Association for the Promotion and Identification of Cycles (APIC).
“The risk is great”
But for some elected officials, this is not enough. Deputy delegate to the mayor of Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis) in charge of mobility, Olivier Sterne thus insists on the need to develop “as much as possible” the infrastructures allowing cyclists to park their bikes in the city. “This is one of the main levers for tackling thefts,” he says. In his municipality, for example, 300,000 euros are dedicated each year to the installation of new hoops, while 20 Véloboxes – shelters allowing the secure parking of six bicycles – have been installed since 2018, for a total cost of 127,620 euros excluding tax. “The subscription is 15 euros per quarter, and 50 euros a year for users … But these places are already saturated, as the demand is strong”, comments the deputy mayor. “The waiting list is always full,” confirms Fabien Ripaud, marketing manager for Altinnova, which designs and maintains some of these Véloboxes throughout France. “In Lille, we started with two residential parking boxes two years ago. Today, we have more than 150”, he illustrates.
Same results in Nantes, where Nicolas Martin, vice-president of the metropolis in charge of soft mobility, recalls that a budget of two million euros has been released for the mandate, “solely to improve bicycle parking”. “The use of bicycles is developing almost exponentially in Nantes, we had to find solutions”, he pleads, citing pell-mell the 700 places created at the “Cyclo Station” of the Gare de Nantes, the 460 secure parking spaces with free access available in the city, or the 1100 paying spaces available by subscription. “There is also a bit of education to do so as not to have your bike stolen: given the quality of the bikes on the market, the temptation for thieves exists. And the risk is great”, admits the elected official. , while 1,087 complaints of bicycle theft were filed with the Nantes police in 2021 – i.e. 90 per month.
For their part, some companies are doubling their inventiveness to offer their customers new solutions to avoid these famous thefts. This is the case of the start-up Sharelock, created in May 2020, which allows its users to benefit from a secure and connected padlock, affixed to street furniture all over the city. “From your Smartphone, you can check that a padlock is available at your destination, and lock or unlock it whenever you want,” explains Alexandre Molla, co-founder of the company. In two years, more than 1000 padlocks have been deployed by Sharelock, mainly in Ile-de-France and in the city of Nice. Other companies, such as Hoot Bike or Invoxia, even offer their customers the opportunity to invest in a GPS tracker for a few hundred euros, in order to find their bikes in the event of theft. “If your bike moves, the tracker wakes up, and checks if your phone is nearby. If it is not, you can be alerted in fifteen seconds, and you will receive its GPS position”, decrypts Rémi Chenu, co -founder of Hoot Bike. In two years of activity, the company has already won over 2,500 users. “We are growing very strongly, with sales every day. Of the five bike thefts that have been reported to us since the start of the year, all have been found”.
*Name has been changed.