Just having a read around about leaving a bike at Waterloo and found this FACTBocks in the Luton on Sunday.

Revealing, isn’t it?

– 47 per cent of cycle theft takes place in autumn/winter months
– On average, seven bikes are stolen from train stations across the country every day
– Bikes with cable or chain locks accounted for 73 per cent of thefts
– Only five per cent of bikes using a D-Lock were stolen
– Most thefts take place between 6-7pm
– Monday is the day when most bikes are stolen – possibly due to being stored at stations over the weekend

Interesting, probably best to stay at home on a Monday evening in the autumn though 😉

Some of those are a bit misleading.
If 47% of bikes are stole in autumn/winter then 53% must be stolen in spring/summer, not much of a difference.
And saying 6% of bikes using a D-lock are stolen, what percentage of bikes using cable/chain locks are stolen? Totally different to saying only 6% of stolen bikes used a D-lock.

– Monday is the day when most bikes are stolen – possibly due to being stored at stations over the weekend

surely they’d be stolen on Sunday then???

A couple of those should be labelled ‘reported stolen’. Of course they’ll be reported at 6-7pm. That’s when the owners are returning expecting to find them! Ditto Monday.

My thoughts exactly. Bullet points giving the impression of conveying information, but on reading, convey none!

“Only five per cent of bikes using a D-Lock were stolen”

One in every 20 bikes using a D lock gets stolen? “ONLY”?!? And over what period? Every week? Presumably every weekend Monday between 6 and 7pm. I’d best get a late train home this evening, then. Especially now we’re out of the autumn/winter theft lull.

Or is it that one in every 20 bikes using a D lock turned out to have been stolen previously?

Written by a politician? I’m impressed at how little information is conveyed using so many words.

Revealing, isn’t it?

Based on the criticism the stats have had so far.

No.

😉

Stevet1 – Member

surely they’d be stolen on Sunday then???

But likely not reported until Monday,

Based on the criticism the stats have had so far.

No.They’re not stats, they’re just a list of numbers with no supporting data.

Note sure if it’s just another statistical bullshit report or just poorly written – in regards to the locks I’m reading it as:

73% of bikes stolen were secured with a cable lock.
5% of bikes stolen were secured with a D-Lock
So presumably 22% of bikes stolen were either unsecured, stolen from the owner by force or and/or other (perhaps secured within a garage but not otherwise locked).

I’ve always believed in the core of it, thieves are lazy – that’s why they spend their lives risking their liberty to ‘earn’ a pittance – because it requires little actual work – which invariably means they’ll follow the path of least resistance – that’s way even in 2015 when 99.9% of people consider a burglar wailing in the middle of the night an annoyance rather than a reason to call the police they still have an effect – a burglar when presented by 2 houses, 1 with an alarm and 1 without will rob the one without.

Same goes for locks, D-locks might not be 100% secure (nothing is) nor are cable locks completely useless – but one’s easier than the other so lazyarse thief will go for the easy option, even if the bike with the d-lock might be worth a bit more.

47 per cent of cycle theft takes place in autumn/winter months

Although it has been commented on already I think we understated just how frighteningly pointless this statistic is

That’s the most potentially interesting stat, in some ways. We expect cycle use to fall substantially during the Autumn/Winter months, both casual and commuting, and yet cycle theft does not decline.

So thieves aren’t super picky, they want a regular income stream, and will carry on nicking bikes through autumn and winter, just with a smaller pool of targets to choose from.

This is turning out like a Jivehoney conspiracy thread…

depends what percentage of thefts occur away from people’s homes though martinhutch?

We expect cycle use to fall substantially during the Autumn/Winter months, both casual and commuting, and yet cycle theft does not decline.

But other thefts go up over the Christmas period so if bikes are being given as presents why shouldn’t they be stolen too?

There’s just not enough background to any of these figures to give any meaningful information.

statistical bullshit report or just poorly written

Or both!

My guess with the 73%/ 5% “comparison” is that whoever wrote it thought they’d use their creative writing skillz to think of another way of writing the same thing to keep the reader engaged but didn’t think enough to realise that it was a backwards step in conveying anything useful.

depends what percentage of thefts occur away from people’s homes though martinhutch?

I thought the whole thing was about thefts from stations?

here’s just not enough background to any of these figures to give any meaningful information.

Hey! What’s wrong with lots of error-strewn assumptions and speculation? 🙂

I thought the whole thing was about thefts from stations?

I thought this was all based on a leaflet the OP found in a Luton van or something? Was it only about thefts from stations?

Oh, I thought he found it in Luton. Perhaps at the station?

this FACTBocks in the Luton

*the* Luton.

I’ve no idea what a FACTBocks is.

Some kind of German lager, I think.

– 47 per cent of cycle theft takes place in autumn/winter months

Half of bikes are stolen over half of the year (the Christmas / New Year holiday accounting for the 3% variation, even thieves need a break). Brilliant.

The cable lock thing doesn’t surprise me. Thieves are lazy and who blames them? For example, there’s a £600 Giant road bike locked outside my office with a £3 cable lock. A cheap pair of tin snips would be enough.

This is turning out like a Jivehoney conspiracy thread..

Prove it!

Do your own research

Proof!

I’ve no idea what a FACTBo(‘)cks is.

FTFY – Local dialect, should read FACTBollocks.

Is his handlebar embedded in his crotch?

Is his handlebar embedded in his crotch?

That isn’t his handlebar 😯

7 bikes a day, thought it would have been much more, like hundreds everyday