St Martins tackles cycle theft

The Design Against Crime Research Centre at Central St Martins College of Art and Design is to launch a project aimed at combating bike theft in London next week with the unveiling of seven new parking designs outside the London college.

The new parking docks, part of an initiative involving Camden Council, Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police, are designed with the intention of reducing the 1200 bike thefts that take place annually in the London borough. The theft of bikes in Camden grew by more than 40 per cent year-on-year.

The parking docks are designed to make life easier for cyclists and harder for thieves by encouraging people who cycle to tie their bikes up more securely, and will begin their on-street testing at the junction of Southampton Row and Theobald’s Road.

Rose Ades, head of the Cycling centre of Excellence at Tfl, said, ‘More and more Londoners are discovering the joys of cycling in the capital – an incredible 450 000 cycle journeys are already being made on a daily basis in London. Tfl recognises that is cycling is to continue its record growth in the capital, the problem of bicycle theft needs to be tackled.’

Research prior to the project found that 24 per cent of cyclists who experience bicycle theft stop cycling altogether, and that 66 per cycle less often.