These 8 Depressing Bike Theft Statistics Show Just How Bad the Problem Is

One of the biggest problems with stopping city bike theft is that cities don't even understand the extent of the problem. Police departments often consider the incidents a low priority and fail to pursue thieves, which in turn discourages riders from reporting later incidents. Great as cities know the problem to be, then, the likely reality is that it's much greater.

Police departments certainly have more severe crimes to address than bike theft, but that doesn't mean the problem is trivial. The general tendency to overlook the problem threatens to undermine public investments in bike infrastructure and the viability of bike-share programs, as well as city mobility more broadly. If people had their cars stolen as often as their bikes — cyclists are four times as likely as drivers to be victims of vehicle theft — you have to imagine cities would take stronger action.