- The city of Strasbourg is setting up, from mid-July, a “tracking” device hidden on the bikes of 500 volunteers.
- The objective is to deter thieves and therefore encourage the practice of cycling, reassuring cyclists, because theft is, according to a survey, an obstacle to its development.
- The experiment will be carried out for a year and could develop at the end.
Not seen but taken. The scourge of bicycle theft in Strasbourg may be derailed with a new device put in place to fight against a sport that has become, it seems, local. A real brake on its development because the fear of seeing disappear its beautiful electric vehicle at 1,500 euros hanging on one of the 22,000 hoops on a bicycle that counts the Eurometropolis is very real. According to police figures, around 2,050 complaints of theft were lodged in 2017 alone. And that would only be the visible part of the iceberg because, according to a 2018 survey, of all Strasbourg residents who suffered a bicycle theft, 65.1% would not file a complaint ... The calculation is quick: almost 6,000 bikes would therefore be stolen each year in the Eurometropolis. One night's flight, online resale, stash, spare parts, the market is flourishing.
500 volunteers selected
Also, a project for a long time in the inner tubes of the municipality will be implemented in mid-July. A small tracker will be placed for free for one year on the bikes of 500 volunteers. The operation is called "Vigivélo". The CADR 67 bicycle promotion association, which had put online a questionnaire to select the lucky beneficiaries, quickly overwhelmed with requests. More than 2,500 already ... "It is the SIRAC [Information and Automatic Traffic Regulation Service] with which discussions have been conducted which will ultimately decide which cyclists are chosen," explains Fabien Masson, the director of association. But the movements of users will not be traced, he reassures immediately. Only when the theft is declared. "
The device, developed by the company Analoc in Schiltigheim is "invisible". It can equip "any type of bike." Cargo, mountain biking and old city bikes, ”says Fabien Masson. And this is the greatest advantage of this device because the idea is above all to deter thieves. "We cannot know where the tracker will be integrated," assures Stéphane Bresson, the director of Analoc, a company specializing in geolocation. It is not an attachment and you can put it wherever you want, in very different places. Result, an ill-intentioned person will have to wonder if he will not be hunted down at his home, or if he will not be stopped by a police patrol that the Sirac will have warned.
A number to start tracking the stolen bike
Concretely, the tracker will be associated with an application. An account with a number will be given by the CADR 67 association to the user. Once the theft has been observed, calling this number immediately launches the SIRAC tracking procedure. It then remains to make a classic theft report to the police.
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This is good news because the number of stolen bikes should increase if nothing is done with the development of cycle paths - currently 700 km - and therefore of bicycle enthusiasts. Without forgetting the city's intention to double (perhaps more with the new freshly elected environmental mayor Jeanne Barseghian), the modal share of the bicycle in 2025 to reach 20% of mechanized trips by 2030.
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