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A Dragnet for Pee-Wee

blog.priceonomics.com

21–30 of 60 posts

Re: A Dragnet for Pee-Wee

#21
I like the concept - a good addition would be to provide reporting and/or policing tools if you find a stolen bike (notify the local PD perhaps, or automatically send CL a takedown notice). It seems like Craigslist would be the first place you go if your (nicer) bike gets stolen, so as it stands, the Racklove search engine doesn't provide a lot of extra value.

As someone who works to provide better access to bikes via bike-sharing, I've seen that it's actually an incredible way to prevent bike theft. Sharing systems are over-engineered to the point where they're very difficult to mess with. However, deterrence for personal bike theft is an interesting problem. Despite the prevalence of bikes, nobody has found a method to secure or track them that's better than a standard U-lock. We're close to the point where GPS units could be installed on many bikes at reasonable cost, but it's still not easy. Something to work towards, or perhaps there's an easier solution out there.

Re: A Dragnet for Pee-Wee

#22
Let's say a bike would normally last you ten years, but it gets stolen every two. Each time you buy a new one. Therefore, there are now five as many bikes as needed. But then, why isn't the market saturated? How can it sustain such a high churn rate? It seems to me that bike thieves need a way to get bikes out of the market, too. They can do it in two ways: by hoarding bikes (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y171/FORDSVTPARTS/Bikes/bik...) or by destroying them. Couldn't something be done about that side of the equation? Reporting people who have abnormal numbers of bikes, or who sell hundreds of old bikes for scraps?

Re: A Dragnet for Pee-Wee

#24

Looks like HN is cranky this morning. I like it! A bike used to be my primary means of transportation back in the Bay Area, and I used to pay for good ones. Every single one of them got stolen. Every one. The last one I owned had a state-of-the-art lock on it, so the thieves cut the bike rack . People that don't rely on a bike seriously underestimate what it means to a bike owner when their bike is stolen; to a lot o…

I had a bike in the bay area too, and in broad daylight someone cut the lock as it was parked on Sansome. I put together a PHP script to scrape craigslist for "white" or "Giant" bicycle ads with images, but after two and a half months I stopped checking and moved on :(

If this service connects just one bike owner with their stolen bicycle then it's worth it, imo.

Re: A Dragnet for Pee-Wee

#25

Looks like HN is cranky this morning. I like it! A bike used to be my primary means of transportation back in the Bay Area, and I used to pay for good ones. Every single one of them got stolen. Every one. The last one I owned had a state-of-the-art lock on it, so the thieves cut the bike rack . People that don't rely on a bike seriously underestimate what it means to a bike owner when their bike is stolen; to a lot o…

Have you ever tried putting a GPS in your bike?

http://www.gizmag.com/spybike-gps-tracker/22999/

Re: A Dragnet for Pee-Wee

#26
The major problem with trying to locate a stolen bike is that it's quite likely not being listed as a "1995 Schwinn YZ123", it's listed as "MANS BIKE L@@K".

Re: A Dragnet for Pee-Wee

#28
post #25

Looks like HN is cranky this morning. I like it! A bike used to be my primary means of transportation back in the Bay Area, and I used to pay for good ones. Every single one of them got stolen. Every one. The last one I owned had a state-of-the-art lock on it, so the thieves cut the bike rack . People that don't rely on a bike seriously underestimate what it means to a bike owner when their bike is stolen; to a lot o…

Have you ever tried putting a GPS in your bike? http://www.gizmag.com/spybike-gps-tracker/22999/

Neat! Back when I was riding, those didn't exist. I would probably get one now though, so thanks for sharing.

Re: A Dragnet for Pee-Wee

#29
Really awesome, not sure how Racklove will prevent thives from selling stolen bikes... Maybe if it will be integrated more with FB, it will be less likely that thieves will use their real fb profile.

Re: A Dragnet for Pee-Wee

#30
post #24

Looks like HN is cranky this morning. I like it! A bike used to be my primary means of transportation back in the Bay Area, and I used to pay for good ones. Every single one of them got stolen. Every one. The last one I owned had a state-of-the-art lock on it, so the thieves cut the bike rack . People that don't rely on a bike seriously underestimate what it means to a bike owner when their bike is stolen; to a lot o…

I had a bike in the bay area too, and in broad daylight someone cut the lock as it was parked on Sansome. I put together a PHP script to scrape craigslist for "white" or "Giant" bicycle ads with images, but after two and a half months I stopped checking and moved on :( If this service connects just one bike owner with their stolen bicycle then it's worth it, imo.

a lot of times bike thieves paint the bikes
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