July 4th 2021        

Bike thievery continues in the Waterloo region

Waterloo Ontario is home to many things - innovative technology, Oktoberfest, Mennonites; there’s all sorts of interesting people and places. But the region is also home to, and dare I say a hub for, another group of people, who unfortunately have less virtuous goals: Bike Thieves.














{Man stares at locked up bike on the campus of WLU(1)}


It is a well known predicament among Waterloo bikers, that leaving a bike out in public, or even on an unprotected property, may, and very well could, lead to a stolen bike. A time when someone could confidently bike downtown, stop at a restaurant while locking their bike outside, and trust in the community and the people who encompass it to respect their mode of transportation, and the eighth commandment(2), are sadly gone. From January to August 2019 alone, the Waterloo Regional Police reported 426 bike thefts. What's more is that 154 of those thefts came from a residence. This means that the thief stole it from the victims home.

 

I write this today to bring to attention this societal issue, which undermines a mode of transportation that so many hold dear. Biking has many benefits, both to society and the individual. As a collective, the more we bike, use public transit, walk, etc, the less energy production  it will take to power the society, lessening our environmental impact. In the case of bikes, the energy comes from man power. Individually, biking offers great exercise, as well as a faster (and more fun) way to travel than walking. If there is to be an increase in bikers going forward, these newbies need to have confidence that their newly chosen way of getting around won't quickly get stolen away, never to be seen again. A stolen bike is devastating, because, for one, bikes aren't cheap, and for two, usually, human beings develop a special connection with their specific bike that gives it sentimental value, which means there is less of a motivation to bike after the original is gone.
 

Searching for individual stories, I came across a young man living in student housing near Wilfred Laurier University. In a quiet tone, almost as if he was still teary eyed from the loss, he explained to me(3):

"Coming from my hometown about an hour away, I had hitherto never experienced bike theft. If I were to leave my bike at the street corner back home, even unlocked, I would expect it to be there when I got back, and every time, it was. It wasn't until coming to Waterloo that my confidence was shaken. In October of 2019, I was in my second year of University, studying and doing many things off campus. I was busy, and needed a bike to travel fast enough to make it all work. This was my grandfather's old ride, of least a couple decades, but yet in a condition I still enjoyed. With little room inside my apartment, I thought it would be ok to leave the bike in my outdoor shed, it being in my backyard, on the property. I was wrong. One morning, not long before Halloween, I found my lock cut in the shed, with no bike present. It was gone, with clear evidence of theft. I was stunned that someone would come through my property, pass the backyard, and into the shed, all to steal a bike, but that was the reality. I had trouble letting go. For a while after I kept up hope that it would come back to me somehow, through return, or that I would find it somewhere. This never happened. Almost two years later in May of this year, I had a similar problem of space in the apartment. There was nowhere to put my new bike, as all the rooms in my house were full. Once again, I had to trust in the Waterloo “community” to have the decency to not commit theft. So, I put it in the shed. Within two days, it was gone. One morning, around 6:45 am, I went to get my bike to travel to work, and to my startlement, it had disappeared. I had no way to get to work that day except by foot, so I started running. This was my second bike stolen in the region. Now, as I think about a third bike, my mind is filled with doubts. Is it worth it? How can I trust in where I leave it? What other mode of transportation would be safer? I have even caught people before coming into our backyard; they quickly run away. It is clear that my property has been identified by bike thieves as somewhere they can get a bike, and therefore, to make money. Unfortunately, my property is not alone".

 

In this situation, the possibility of biking was completely stripped from him. This on its own may not be a big deal, but when 426 thefts are reported in just over half a year, there is a larger, societal problem. Biking is exhilarating, useful, and fun, and the possibility to use this mode of transportation should be given to as many people as possible. To accomplish this in the Waterloo Region, the bike theft epidemic must be eradicated.
 

Similar to many large issues, bike theft can be analyzed through the lens of economic conditions. Overwhelmingly, people steal bikes either to resell it for money, or to gain a bike that they cannot afford. Now, there is no way of morally excusing this action, but, it should be noted that if economic conditions were better, then undoubtedly there would be less people resorting to bike theft, either to afford food, water, shelter, drugs, or a bike for themselves. If the economy improves for people, I suspect so will the trust between bike riders and general society. If wealth inequality and poverty increase, I suspect owning a bike in the area will only become more challenging.

 

Another factor here that should be pointed out is how bikes are stolen. ‘The cord’, Laurier's school newspaper, wrote an investigative article back in 2012 with the aim of discovering just how easy it was to steal a bike. The writer found that when they attempted to steal a bike, even using large cutters, nobody stopped them. A couple times, they were stopped and questioned by pedestrians, but not serious enough to save the bike. If the writer was a real bike thief, they would have gotten away with it. So, in the future, one obvious solution to the bike thief problem will be the active watch of bi-standers. This summer, when theft inevitably increases, keep an eye out for people with lock cutting material, and stop any theft that you witness. In your own life, respect others' mode of transportation, and if people you know engage in such behaviour such as bike theft, don’t put up with it:

 

Take a moral stand.