Bike theft is becoming effectively decriminalised, and something needs to change

Imagine, if you will, that you drove your car to the local station to get to work, parked up, locked it, and then caught a train, as usual. When you got back, nine hours later, you find your car is gone, stolen. Naturally, you call the police, tell them of the crime, but, shockingly, you're told that there's nothing they can do.

Thankfully for the car drivers out there, this is an unlikely scenario. However, replace drove with cycle and car with bike, and this is apparently just how things are.

This week, the BBC reported that the British Transport Police (BTP) will not investigate bike thefts outside stations when the bike has been left for more than two hours. Two hours, so that immediately excludes almost everyone, unless you're locking your bike up to nip inside. There aren't a lot of train journeys I take that mean I'm there and back in 120 minutes.

There are differences, of course. Cars tend to be – but not always – more expensive than bikes. In 2025, they can be locked up pretty securely, while even some of the top bike locks can't prevent a bike being taken. It is the beauty and simplicity of the bike which make it a victim of opportunist crime, too; wheels and parts can be taken, the whole thing can be simply cycled off in minutes.

Adam Becket

News editor at Cycling Weekly, Adam brings his weekly opinion on the goings on at the upper echelons of our sport in The Leadout, a newsletter series from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. As ever, email adam.becket@futurenet.com - should you wish to add anything, or suggest a topic.

But this doesn't make the bike any less important. The revelation about bike theft at stations is just the latest proof that this crime is treated as secondary. The stolen bike is often a lifeline, the only way for someone to get to the station, to get to work, to get to that hospital appointment, that crucial interview, to get to the pub or the show. We live in a society where cars and their drivers are thought of as better than bikes and their riders, and it's not good for any of us.

It's not like this everywhere. It might feel like it in the UK, certainly, where I would never lock my nice bike up in public for any amount of time, and I hear similar things in the US, if places are friendly to riding at all. Studies show 2.4 million bikes a year are stolen in the US, and well over 50,000 in the UK. The overwhelming majority are never recovered.

Visit the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, even Germany and you'll see people cycling around with less fear of theft. It's possible. Infrastructure is one key part of making people embrace bikes, but security is another. This is why every time I'm reminded of the prevalence of theft, it saddens me.

If someone has their only bike stolen, that lifeline wrenched from them, then probability tells they're likely to stop cycling altogether. That's another person on two wheels who might go back to their car, or have to endure a worse journey, and ultimately isn't making the world a better place by bike.

Secure bike parking at stations is one way of solving this issue, but a cultural shift over the value of bicycles is also needed. They're not disposable, throwaway objects, they are a whole way of seeing the world differently, of getting around, of becoming healthier. Bikes mean just as much as cars.