A ‘crisis’ year for bike theft in Toronto
Out of 3,728 reported thefts last year, only 49 were recovered
The past year, reports say, was an abysmal year for bike theft in Toronto, with the numbers of stolen bikes across the city reaching “crisis levels.” In all, 2017 saw more than 3,700 bikes reported stolen, representing a 26 per cent rise compared with numbers gathered in 2014.
A total of 3,728 were stolen, according to the city. And of those, only 49 were recovered—a measly 1 per cent.
With that in mind, the Toronto police have released new data that indicates where your bike is most likely to be stolen, in terms of the city’s neighbourhoods. That neighbourhood, the CBC reported, is the Waterfront Communities-The Island, an area of Toronto that includes places such as the Entertainment District, St. Lawrence Market and Toronto Island.
In this downtown stretch of the Canada’s largest city, hugging the waterfront, 384 of those 3,728 bikes reported stolen in 2017 were nabbed.
Bikes stored in apartment or condominium buildings were represented highly in those figures, according to CBC reports. Other data released by the Toronto police indicates that such thefts, from right under the noses of cyclists who live in these buildings, hit a record high of 719 in 2016, an 82 per cent increase over 2014’s 396. That’s in addition to other, equally troubling trends that have been noticed by police, like the incidence of bikes stolen due to breaking and entering.
For concerned riders in the Toronto area, or anyone else, the CBC has arranged this bike theft data into an interactive map, broken down according to bike type, neighbourhood, the site of thefts and the year in which bike theft has occurred.
