1,200 bikes are stolen every day, says study
A study by the insurance company Direct Line suggested that about 440,000 bikes are being taken by thieves each year.
Direct Line “planted” locked bikes in 10 cities and within 24 hours mostof them had been stolen, with half disappearing within just two hours.
A bike left in Croydon, south London, was stolen within an hour and bikes locked up in the centre of Manchester and Liverpool lasted less than two hours.
Direct Line warned that consumers could be fuelling the problem by not checking the ownership of a bicycle if they buy one second- hand.
Almost a half of secondhand bicycles are bought over the internet, where people are far less likely to ask about previous ownership. Andrew Lowe, of Direct Line, said: “With bike theft on the increase cyclists need to be more careful than ever when leaving their bikes locked up in public.
“Using a good lock and placing the bike in an open and visible area will all help. However, our experiment demonstrated just how quickly a bike can be taken even when locked up in a public area,” he added.
Letter: Bike madness
Sir: (”Drivers may be blamed for all bicycle accidents”, 5 August). One night a drunk, underage cyclist, who had never passed any test of competence, and who has a record of similar offences, rides the wrong way down a one-way street on a bicycle with defective brakes and no lights. She runs into my stationery car, which I have left unattended, with its parking lights on, in an authorised parking place which I have paid to use.
The cyclist causes damage to my car as well as to her bicycle and herself. She makes a successful claim against my insurance, causing me to lose my no-claim bonus and increasing my insurance premium for the next year. What is going on here? Has the cycling lobby lost all sense of what is fair and reasonable?
JOHN ELLIOTT BRADSHAW
Wellesbourne, Warwickshire JOHN ELLIOTT BRADSHAW
Wellesbourne, Warwickshire
Court decisions: A monthly roundup of judicial wisdom
UM coverage doesn’t apply to a bicycle
Nicole Haynes was walking across the street in a crosswalk when she was struck by a bicycle and injured. She filed a claim under the auto liability policy issued to her by Nationwide, contending that her injuries were covered by the uninsured motorist provision of her policy. The claim was denied because a bicycle did not qualify as a “motor vehicle.”Nationwide filed its motion for summary judgment, which was granted, and the insured appealed. The sole question before the court was whether the bicycle was a “motor ve
The policy issued by Nationwide defined “motor vehicle” as “a land motor vehicle designed for use on public roads. … Other motor vehicles designed for use mainly off public roads are covered when used on public roads.”
The court, on appeal, pointed out that the Ohio statute specifically defined motor vehicle to mean “any vehicle … propelled or drawn by power other than muscular power … except motorized bicycles. …”
It added that another section of that statute defined “bicycle” to mean “every device, other than a tricycle that is designed for use as a play vehicle by a child, that is propelled solely by human power upon which any person may ride, and that has either two tandem wheels, or one wheel in front and two wheels in the rear, any of which is more than fourteen inches in diameter.”
In answer to the question on appeal, the court ruled that neither the statute nor Nationwide’s policy mandated uninsured motorist coverage for bicycle-pedestrian accidents arising solely from the use of bicycles.
The judgment entered in the trial court in favor of Nationwide was affirmed.
Haynes, Appellant v Lock et al.No. 73457-Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth District, Cuyahoga County-May 18, 1998-713. North Eastern Reporter 2d 492.
UIM benefits payable despite signing of release
Dorothy Webster had secured from Pekin an auto liability policy that provided UIM benefits of $300,000/500,000 limits. The policy was in force in September 1994, when Webster was seriously and permanently injured in an accident in West Virginia when a car driven by Ryan Childers hit her vehicle head-on. Childers had a policy issued by State Farm with a $100,000 limit. Webster was paid the limit of this policy after her attorney had notified Pekin, in writing, that State Farm had offered the limit of the policy. The attorney asked Pekin if the offer could be accepted. Pekin did not respond and, after another unanswered Letter, Webster accepted the settlement and signed a release stating that she released Childers from any and all claims for injuries arising from the September accident.
Pekin contended that the release signed by Webster limited any further recovery thereby barring any recovery of UIM benefits.
Webster had obtained the policy through Pekin.’s agent, Thomas DeShone. She filed this action against the agent and the company in September 1996, alleging both of them had breached their duty to deal with her in good faith.
The trial court agreed that the release barred the insured from recovering UIM benefits under the policy issued to her by Pekin. Webster appealed.
Pekin argued that its insured had “to be legally entitled to recover” UIM benefits under her policy and was required to have a viable cause of action against Childers at the time she sought UIM benefits under her policy issued by Pekin. The higher court disagreed and ruled that Webster’s execution of the release did not terminate Pekin’s obligation to pay its insured UIM benefits, and she was legally entitled to recover such benefits, the amount of which must be determined by the lower court.
Further, the court found that the complaint alleged that the agent, DeShone, promised to pay the insured UIM benefits of $200,000. In view of this, the lower court erred in entering summary judgment dismissing the insured’s bad faith claim against him, since there was an issue of material fact existing as to whether the agent deceitfully promised to pay those benefits.
The judgment entered in the trial court in favor of Pekin and its agent was reversed and remanded with instructions.
Dorothy Webster, Appellant, v. Pekin Insurance Company and Thomas DeShone-No 20A03-9812CV 490-Court of Appeals of Indiana-July 23, 1999-713 North Eastern Reporter 2d 932.
Victim sues insurer for chiropractic expenses
Teresa White was injured in a rear-end accident involving a car driven by Johnnie Bailey. She had secured an auto liability policy from State Farm which provided payment for “reasonable medical expenses for bodily injury caused by accident, for services furnished within three years of the date of the accident.”The policy defined “reasonable medical expenses” as those excluding “treatment, services, products or procedures that are not commonly and customarily recognized throughout the medical profession, and within the United States as appropriate for the treatment of the bodily injury.”
hicle” within the meaning of the policy, and the Ohio statute.
Your Money: Pound notes - STOLEN BIKES
pounds BIKE thieves are leaving university students with a pounds 18.7million bill for stolen bikes, according to research from Direct Line home insurance. The insurer found that 106 bicycles are stolen each day from students across the UK, with the average bike costing pounds 160 to replace.
It’s time to get insurance both for yourself and your bicycle
As more and more of us look to lead leaner, greener lives, we are increasingly ditching our four-wheeled vehicles in favour of the two- wheeled variety. In recent years, there has been an upsurge in the popularity of cycling right across Britain - including a growing number of commuters who now rely on pedal power as a quicker, easier and more convenient way of getting around.
The cycling boom has been fuelled by the creation of bicycle lanes and investment in cycle routes - which has reached [pound]36m a year in London - as well as a growth in initiatives such as the Government’s own “Cycle to Work” scheme.
Events such as National Bike Week which runs until tomorrow (24 June), have also helped to rekindle our love affair with the bike, while the imminent arrival of the Tour de France - set to hit London on 7-8 July - has prompted still more of us to get back in the saddle.
But while green-conscious, health-conscious Brits may spend hours deliberating over which bike to buy, they also need to think about insurance.
This is one bike accessory they can’t afford to ignore - with figures from the Department of Transport showing that 2,000 cyclists were involved in serious accidents last year, while findings from Halifax Home Insurance show that a total of 439,000 bikes are stolen each year - equating to one machine being stolen every 71 seconds.
There’s no denying that bicycles are an easy target for thieves who are pedalling away with [pound]146m of stolen bicycles each year, according to the Halifax, with London cyclists the most likely bike-theft victims. In 2006, the insurer found that 89 per cent of all bikes were stolen having been left locked up in a public place, 10 per cent were left unlocked in public places and 1 per cent were stolen from within the victim’s property.
Richard Mason, from the price comparison service moneysu- permarket.com, says that with an increasing number of bikes on the road, it’s important to think about bike cover.
“If you’re cycling to work as an alternative to using the car or public transport, you need to consider how well insured your bike is - just as you would your car,” he says. “Getting bicycle insurance doesn’t need to cost the Earth.”
There are two basic types of cover. For most bikes, the cheapest way of insuring against theft is through your home-contents policy; most insurers will allow you to add cycle insurance to their standard contents cover - although some will not insure expensive bikes, so you need to check this.
With esure.com or Lloyds TSB, for example, you can add your bike on to your contents insurance for around [pound]20 a year, says Mason ( see table).
But if you opt for this route, check the premiums you’ll pay when you first purchase contents insurance because costs vary considerably; also check the levels of cover and also examine the excess thresholds.
In addition, check with your insurer if your home insurance policy will cover your bike if it is stolen in a public place, as you may have to pay an additional premium for this.
Also find out if your bike is covered for a replacement or if instead you will just be given a depreciated value.
The alternative is taking out standalone cover from an insurer who has specific policies for cycling - although this can turn out to be very expensive.
Many of the specialist policies include personal liability cover automatically - this is useful if you hit a pedestrian or damage someone else’s property while cycling. You should also check if you get personal accident cover, which would cover you for your own injuries.
“For [pound]56.50 a year, with E&L Insurance, you can get insured for every eventuality - including personal liability, personal injury, and third party cover - should the worst happen,” says Mason. “AUA offers similar standalone cover from [pound]72 a year” ( see table).
But Mason urges cyclists to weigh up whether getting specialist bike insurance is justified - especially as it can be more than double the price.
Some home-contents policies may also provide liability protection if you are responsible for an accident while cycling, but you definitely need to check this with your insurer.
A compromise option is to join a group such as the CTC, a national cycling organisation, or the London Cycling Campaign, which often offer third-party insurance for cyclists as part of the membership.
As a final point, it’s worth noting that insurers will almost always expect you to have taken reasonable steps to protect your bike, as if it was unlocked when it was stolen - while you were in a shop, say - your claim is likely to be rejected.
There are a number of basic security measures you can take.
“Cyclists should make use of special bike-parking racks and always lock their bike,” says the Halifax’s bike spokeswoman, Vicky Emmott.
“If possible, use a rack that is in a well-lit or busy area.”
When not in use, keep the bike locked in an outbuilding or inside the house, and always lock the door to the building.
Easier to park at Shire Hall
Cambridgeshire County Council’s headquarters at Shire Hall is one of the bigger employment sites in Cambridge, and while the County Council is promoting more sustainable transport, for example through the Travel for Work scheme, it is also making some effort to recognise its own role as employer and energy consumer. Many projects are only pilots so far - for example there is one gas-powered car among the ordinary pool cars, and one solar powered light by the porter’s lodge. However, there has been more serious attention given to cycle parking in recent years and months, and the programme is continuing.
Travelwise co-ordinator David Arkell took me on a tour of some of the cycle parking facilities on one of the wettest mornings of the year in early March. There has always been some cycle parking on the Shire Hall site, but until recently much of it was of the wheel bender variety. Now however, Sheffield stands are becoming the norm. But what is unusual is that many of these are being installed under covered shelters. These are distributed around the large site, so that people can park their bikes close to their particular office. A few new Sheffield stands have also been installed within the last year at the main entrance, which visitors are free to use, and this year at the Castle Court entrance.
Security cages under Castle Court Image as described asjacent
Notices on the shelters make it clear that cycle theft is as much a problem here as everywhere. Closed circuit TV seems to be the answer to many urban crime issues. Here the County Council is to install cameras specifically to keep the cycle stands under surveillance. These haven’t gone in yet, but are on the way.
Under Castle Court there is a car park, and at two of the corners a couple of spaces have been removed and replaced by locked cages containing bike racks. County employees can obtain a key, offering them very secure cycle parking with an allocated space. David said that these had been there for several years now. One effect of the generally increased level of provision seems to be that ‘people who might only have cycled in the summer are tending to cycle all year round now’, he said. At which point another member of the Environment and Transport Department staff drew up heavily dressed in waterproofs. Did he use the cages, I asked, expecting to take a photo of them in action. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘I just lean my bike against the wall.’
Security
One of the strands of the National Cycling Strategy is cycle security, recognising that a deterrent to cycling is the very high level of cycle theft. The insurance industry naturally has an interest in this area since it pays out on rather too many claims each year. There were well over 1,000 cycle thefts in Cambridge last year, about which we wrote at the time. The Strategy envisages a bike registration system where providers of databases are registered with the police.
However, Norwich Cycling Campaign is already up and running with a registration scheme. They have a grant from Norwich’s Safer Cities initiative and Norwich Union, which allows them to employ a manager part time and data-entry job experience. The scheme has been running about four months now. It has around 300 bikes registered, and has already had a major success: when one stolen bike was spotted in a shop by its owner, checks with the database revealed another was also stolen and the owner is being prosecuted. That meant that two of the three registered bikes that have been stolen since the scheme began have been recovered.
I explored the idea of using the same database and free-post address for registration with Norwich Cycling Campaign, and there would appear to a lot of benefit in running a combined scheme. As well as sharing resources, it would also mean cycles that turn up in the other town can be traced. We would need to liaise with cycle shops and Cambridge police, and raise some money to cover the costs of maintaining a much bigger database, extra post and so on.
There are several avenues we can explore for funding: Cambridge has its own safer city scheme; there is also a Local Agenda 21 budget starting next year; and the County Council’s Travelwise scheme might be approached for funding.
Cycle Lockers Investigation
We’ve been asked by Jo Martin at the County Council to canvass opinion on the demand for secure cycling parking lockers in Cambridge, specifically at two possible sites: Cambridge Train Station and the Milton Road Park-and-Ride.
The idea being considered is to rent out lockers to individuals, who would receive their own key, and therefore be assured of secure parking on arrival. The lockers are big enough to leave waterproofs, panniers, etc. inside, along with the bike. There would be some charge, and a key-deposit would be required, and so would be of most benefit to daily users. The proceeds would go back into the cycling budget.
What we’d like to know is:
1.
Would you be likely to want to rent such a locker at either:
1. Cambridge Train Station
2. Milton Road Park-and-Ride
(Note that Jo and colleagues are already aware that there is a great need for additional “Sheffield”-type cycle racks at the railway station.)
2.
Do you have any other Cambridge venues in mind (there will already be cycle lockers provided at the new Madingley Road Park-and-Ride when it opens)
3.
Would you be prepared to pay £15 per month to use such a facility?
4.
What do you think the charge should be? (We understand that “free” is not likely to be a viable option)
5.
If you’re likely to rent a locker, what sort of timescale would suit you:
1. All year round
2. Occasional weeks
3. Summer months only
4. Other…
Please send your feedback to the Campaign by June 8th, and we’ll collate the responses and pass them on to Jo.
Lock It And Lose It Anyway
At a recent local consultation group meeting with the Cambridgeshire Police Authority, crime statistics were presented for the four month period up to the end of July 1995. They make quite alarming reading. These figures (I’ve included several other for comparison) are for the whole of Cambridgeshire:
Theft of Pedal Cycles   2515
Theft of Motor Vehicles   1870
Theft from Motor Vehicles   4198
Household Burglaries   1825
The cycle figure for the “Southern Division” (including the City) was 1242 (up slightly on the same period the previous year). Of these only 56 were “detected” (which is a 5% detection rate).
At the last meeting we felt that:
* it was amazing that these high figures (for cycle theft, at least) were tolerated by the public
* that there were maybe insufficient racks (it’s really essential to make sure you lock you bike to something). However, there are already enough racks for around 1000 bikes in the City.
* crime detection isn’t as “pro-active” as we’d like.
One of the force’s stated objectives for the coming year is to “work together with the community and agencies to tackle and prevent crimes that are a local problem”. Consequently, we’ve written to the police asking them in what ways they plan to tackle this significant problem
Making life easier…Upgrade your dynamo lights
It’s a good time of year to make sure your bike lights continue working. Dynamo lighting systems are cheap and effective, as well as being less attractive to thieves. This month David Green describes how to upgrade a dynamo system to a twin-cable system to make it more reliable.
Most ‘dynamo’ systems rely on the bicycle’s frame as part of the electrical circuit between the generator and the light. If you look at a bike with dynamo lights, you can see that there is only one wire going from the generator to each lamp. I call this a ’single-cable’ system. To complete the electrical circuit, there needs to be an unbroken ‘return’ path from lamp to generator as well. In single-cable systems, the steel or aluminium bike frame and its components serve this purpose. Unfortunately, it takes only one poor metal-to-metal connection somewhere in this return path to stop a single-cable system in its tracks. (If you have ever had the slow and frustrating job of locating a rusty connection, you will know what I mean!)
My solution is to bypass this inherent weakness by wiring the generator as a ‘twin-cable’ system with one wire for the ‘live’ part of the circuit to each light, and one wire acting as the ‘earth’ part. Anyone who is patient and happy to wield a soldering iron will find this upgrade easy and worthwhile.
Image as described adjacent
What you need: [A] soldering iron, [B] loudspeaker cable, [C] cable ties, [D] round connectors, [E] heat shrink plastic, [F] lamps and dynamo.
Tools and materials
The following items can all be found in hi-fi, DIY or electrical stores. (I went to Maplin and Mackays).
* Soldering iron (plus flux and solder).
* Sharp knife (to cut and ’strip’ cables).
* Twin-core ‘loudspeaker cable’ approx. 3 metres. Make sure you can distinguish each core.
* Cable ties in 10 cm and 15 cm lengths. Get about ten of each.
* Round connectors. Get four of these with holes big enough to accept the bolts used to mount your front and rear lamps, and your dynamo. (I needed both 5 mm and 6 mm diameter holes.)
* ‘Heat shrink’ plastic and a hot air gun or similar (optional).
* Front and rear lights and a dynamo. I used a standard ‘bottle’ dynamo on my rear wheel, a halogen front lamp and a busch&müller DToplight at the back.
Getting ready
Allow about two hours. Try to find a workspace with good lighting and where you can sit down to do the fiddly soldering jobs. Before you begin, make sure that your lamps and dynamo are positioned effectively on your bike. See the article on Lighting in Newsletter 32.
What to do
Follow the sequence described in the following photos.
Image as described adjacent        Image as described adjacent
1. On the front light, identify the ‘live’ and ‘earth’ wire attachment points. My light has a small screw for clamping the live wire (+). The earth wire will simply attach to the lamp bracket (-). Â Â Â 2. Better quality lights are often designed with two-cable systems in mind. My rear busch&müller DToplight has separate terminals for the live wire (+) and the earth wire (-). On other models, the terminals may not be so obvious, but you can usually work them out by ‘working backwards’ from where the bulb contacts are.
Image as described adjacent        Image as described adjacent
3. For each light, plan how you can best route a cable back to the dynamo, then cut a length of the twin-core speaker cable about 50 mm longer than you need for the route. Decide which of the twin cores you are using as the ‘earth’ core. (Note: you must use the same core for ‘earth’ at both ends of the cable.) Start by preparing the connections at the lamp end of each cable by stripping about 10 mm of the plastic from each core. You might need a ‘push-on’ connector [A] or a ’round connector’ [B]. ‘Bare wires’ [C] are more durable and easier to handle if you apply solder to them. Â Â Â 4. To start with, just prepare the connections you need at the lamp end of the front- and rear light cables. For a really neat finish, before you attach a connector, slip a piece of heat shrink plastic onto the cable.
Image as described adjacent        Image as described adjacent
5. Attach the cables to each lamp and re-check your cable routing all the way back to the dynamo. You may need to trim the length of each cable so that it reaches the dynamo neatly. In this picture you can see where the small screw on my front lamp is clamping the live wire (+) while the earth wire (-) is clamped to the lamp bracket. Â Â Â 6. Taking care to distinguish the ‘earth’ wire from the ‘live’ wire, solder the necessary connectors to the dynamo end of the cables. Now connect up at the dynamo. In this picture you can see the round connectors I fitted to the earth wires () from each cable clamped to the same bracket attachment point.
Image as described adjacent        Image as described adjacent
7. On my bike the ‘live’ wires from each light cable are attached to the dynamo as ‘bare wires.’ Â Â Â 8. Use cable ties to secure the cables neatly against the frame. Make sure that you do not accidentally trap any gear control inner cables!