Would require some pretty hefty changes in law, making registration akin to registering full size motor vehicles. But hey I’d be all in favor. These things are of course technically better than cars environmentally speaking but they’re still godawful compared to a proper bike.
Bicycles already have a serial number under crankshaft.
All am saying is for either government or manufacturer to issue a standardized plastic card to indicate ownership. Doesn’t even have to have a name on it. Just serial number and bike description or whatever. So whoever steals your bike will have to steal the card as well making it significantly harder.
Unless there’s a way to verify authenticity, which would require central registration of some sort (good luck with that), such a card would be easily faked. It’d impact legit owners more than actual thieves, since many people would probably lose theirs at some point.
Central registration exists already. The two big ones are Project 529 and Bike Index. I highly recommend them. Bike theft is down in Vancouver even while ridership has skyrocketed.
Would require some pretty hefty changes in law, making registration akin to registering full size motor vehicles. But hey I’d be all in favor. These things are of course technically better than cars environmentally speaking but they’re still godawful compared to a proper bike.
Bicycles already have a serial number under crankshaft.
All am saying is for either government or manufacturer to issue a standardized plastic card to indicate ownership. Doesn’t even have to have a name on it. Just serial number and bike description or whatever. So whoever steals your bike will have to steal the card as well making it significantly harder.
Unless there’s a way to verify authenticity, which would require central registration of some sort (good luck with that), such a card would be easily faked. It’d impact legit owners more than actual thieves, since many people would probably lose theirs at some point.
Central registration exists already. The two big ones are Project 529 and Bike Index. I highly recommend them. Bike theft is down in Vancouver even while ridership has skyrocketed.
You might be right, but bike theft is rampant and needs to be stopped. Especially as we are looking to get over climate problems.
Or just forge it.
You can have a “public key/private key” system, so the code on the card is matched with but is not the same as the code on the bike.