Lose a bike, win a lock

BikePortland.org has a stolen bike registry. BikePortland has added to this effective program by offering two free Kryptonite locks every month for everybody who reports their stolen bicycle to the police and lists their bicycle at BikePortland.

BikePortland's owner, Jonathan, has multiple motivations for running this contest. "I think we need more people to call and report their bike to the cops because they actually recover a lot of stolen property because of the meth situation. We need to pump up the official stolen bike stats as much as possible so that maybe someday the issue will have some leverage in high places. Right now it's pretty much just laughed at."

BikePortland is already a tremendously popular resource for Portland cyclists, but Jonathan believes the Kryptonite lock giveaway will draw even more attention to his site. "As my site and my listings get more visibility, we will recover more bikes," says Jonathan. "There is power in community awareness of an issue like this as the several recoveries in the past few weeks can attest!"

BikePortland is partnering with Kryptonite in this project. According to Donna Tocci of Kryptonite, "Kryptonite's hope is that even just the announcement of this program will get some people to stop and think about security. Nobody likes to think about security much and, of course, 'it won't happen' to them, but, unfortunately, everyone should think about security and protect themselves."

Beyond product giveaways, other Kryptonite educational efforts include sponsorship of numerous bicycling events every year, free distribution to police departments of non-product specific brochures on proper lock-up free, and visits to bike shops. Says Donna, "Education about the need for security is a big deal to us. The more we educate consumers about the need for security, the more they use security. Yes, we hope they choose Kryptonite, but whichever brand they choose, they are better off than not having any security at all."

Bike theft is a bigger problem than many of us think. Thanks to BikePortland and Kryptonite for bringing some attention to this issue.

See related: kryptonite, bike+theft, crime