UBC students feel pinch of spike in bike thefts
It was on Liliana Henriksson’s birthday, and the night before an exam, that the first-year University of B.C. student’s new road bike was stripped for parts while locked outside on campus.
Henriksson is among scores of people who have lost their bicycles — or parts of them — to theft at UBC over the last two months after a jump in thefts that coincided with the start of the fall semester.
Sgt. Eric Baskette of the RCMP’s UBC detachment said the levels of theft police are dealing with is “definitely elevated” this year over last.
The UBC uptick comes as a multi-year decrease in bicycle thefts continues in neighbouring Vancouver, which was once considered Canada’s bike theft capital.
Henriksson bought her bike used in September. She figured a used bike would be less likely to be stolen.
“I didn’t want it to be super nice just for that reason,” she said.
Despite that, a thief stripped it of its handlebars and other parts.
Henriksson said she wants the university to place additional security cameras in areas frequented by bicyclists.
Rob McCloy, executive director of campus security at UBC, said his personnel patrol the campus 24 hours a day, and the campus has well-lit bike racks and cages meant to discourage would-be thieves.
Despite that, there were 70 bike thefts reported to university police between Aug. 1 and Oct. 1, say RCMP. In that time, 558 bikes were stolen in Vancouver, according to VPD.
“I think the university is attractive for bike thefts at this time of year with students coming back to school. And I think that is potentially responsible for the increase,” Baskette said.
Baskette said he does not think the thefts are a concerted effort to target the university. Bike thieves tend to be repeat offenders, he said.
Police and campus security work together to try to curb the thefts, Baskette said. But he encouraged people who bike to or around the campus to record the serial number of their rides, keep their receipts and other means of identifying their bikes, and lock them up in well-lit, well-travelled areas.
There are nearly 80,000 people on the Point Grey campus when classes are in session, according to a 2017 university report. That means bike thefts were running at roughly nine per 10,000 people every day during the part two months.
Comparing UBC to Vancouver is difficult because of major differences in the way the two jurisdictions are lived in, travelled to and used. But fewer than one bicycle per 10,000 people was stolen daily in Vancouver during the same months. And while UBC’s thefts in that time period increased in 2018 over 2017, Vancouver’s dropped.
Jeremy Suhan, a mechanic at the Bike Kitchen, a non-profit, community bike shop located on campus, said theft is a significant issue and he recommended cyclists spend as much money as they can on a good lock.
“But what I think really matters is the locking practices and your ability to bring your bicycle inside at most places you spend long amounts of time,” he said.
Staff at the Bike Kitchen are happy to spend time with anyone who comes in to advise them on locking practices, Suhan said.
“Although it’s never a bike theft victim’s fault that their bike gets stolen, the unfortunate reality is that bike theft will happen in the current climate, because it’s so easy to steal bikes. It’s so easy to not get caught.”