the Aix-Marseille metropolitan area’s plan to fight bicycle theft
In particular, the Métropole offers to register your bicycle so that it is easier to find its owner in the event of theft.
Each year, more than 400,000 bikes are stolen in France. If it sometimes happens that they are found, in 40% of cases, it is impossible to identify their owner. It is for this reason that the Aix-Marseille metropolitan area has set up the “Do not touch my bike” campaign.
In this context, it offers users the opportunity to have 12 figures engraved on the frame of their bicycle which will constitute a real identity card. Once this “bicycode” is entered, the bike joins a database where the owner’s contact details are listed.
This single national file is then made available to the authorities who can then more easily find a stolen bicycle.
400 registrations
The Metropolis has also announced that it will offer 1000 bicycle markings until 2022. Users can make them at one of the partner associations of the device, such as Les Vélo des Étangs in Istres.
“The Metropolis encourages the engraving of bicycles. Before, when a bicycle was stolen from us, we went to the police and the bicycle did not have an identity. Now it has an identity”, explains Raymond Rosello of the association Les Bikes from the Ponds to Istres.
Since the start of the year, it has completed around fifty registrations. On the metropolitan territory, this figure rises to 400.
The other associations participating in “Touche pas à mon Vélo” are in Aix-en-Provence (ADAVA Pays d’Aix), Marseille (Collectif Vélos en Ville), Aubagne (Action Vélo), La Ciotat (Utop Vélo) and Salon -de-Provence (Aprovel).
Bike marking is not the only system put in place by the Aix-Marseille Metropolis, a gradual deployment of secure bicycle shelters is also planned. A total of 80 are to be created by 2024.