After reading through THIS well-articulated piece on cycling culture in urban centres this morning, I found myself going down a rabbit hole of cycling care of its author, Chris Bruntlett. On his Twitter stream - @cbruntlett - this self-professed bicycle geek shares news and opinions on cycling in Vancouver and beyond, and the chase begun there. It took a turn to former city councillor Gordon Price's website, where he put a PUBLIC CALL out for people to help find his partner's stolen bike, and finally ended at a resource I hadn't heard of before: VanCity Bike Watch where I toggled an interactive map showing bikes stolen in Vancouver (and exactly where they were stolen) VS bikes recovered, and more...
Bikes stolen (holy moly!):
Bikes recovered (hm.):
According to VanCity Bike Watch, they provide "a visual representation of the Lower Mainland's bike scene by aggregating reports from the public and volunteers." They take those reports and plug them into a map which provides geo location of bike shops, stolen bikes and road hazards. And recovered bikes.
Stolen bikes? Admittedly not awesome. The ratio of those stolen ones above VS the amount recovered? Also not great. But cyclists pitching in to raise awareness around issues involving cycling, and perhaps helping change the aforementioned ratio? That's awesome. Bookmark the site HERE, and pitch in where you can.
