‘On your bike’ for anti-theft flop

An anti-bike theft scheme that cost Copenhagen City Council millions has been scrapped after just two bicycles were returned to their rightful owners since 2008. The project, which saw two-wheelers fitted with electronic chips in an attempt to cut down on the 18,000 thefts a year in the city, cost DEK 3.2m (EUR 429,100) and yielded very few results.

The council’s technical and environmental committee agreed last week that a further DEK 500,000 (EUR 67,000) would not be invested in the ill-fated venture. “No, the project will not continue,” Social Democrat council member Lise Thorsen told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. ”We all agreed that it’s pointless to continue the financing of a project that clearly isn’t working.”

Head of the council’s bicycle division, Andreas Rohl, said they soon lost faith in the idea, which was introduced by former mayor Ritt Bierregaard in 2008.

“We thought it was a great experiment, but we soon stopped believing in it. So we stopped installing chips and we also stopped producing scanners for the parking attendants,” he admitted. ”I still have great respect for the idea that a city council experiments to solve problems. But we must admit that this was a wrong judgement call,” Rohl added.