This week is the national week of action against bicycle thefts, an initiative of the FPS Home Affairs. The reason? On average, around 80 bicycles are stolen every day in our country. And that figure only applies to bicycles that are officially reported to the police as stolen. Many victims no longer even bother to do so – after all, the chance that the bicycle will be recovered is very small. Although the launched MyBike sticker should change that.
READ ALSO. New sticker makes it easier to find the owner of stolen bicycles
Leuven
Figures that Green MP Eva Platteau requested from Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) show that there are enormous regional differences in bicycle thefts. Logically, Antwerp, as the largest Flemish city, has the highest number: according to the most recent figures, almost 4,200 bicycles were stolen in the Scheldt city in 2022. That’s about 10 thefts every day.
But in relation to the population of the various Flemish cities and municipalities, student cities Leuven and Ghent score the highest. There are 15 bicycle thefts per thousand inhabitants in Leuven, and about 12 in Ghent.
Student cities traditionally always score high in terms of bicycle theft. Many students have a so-called ‘room bicycle’, a somewhat rickety bicycle that they use to cycle from the station to their room, and which is not always secured carefully or with a good lock. After Leuven – where bicycle thefts seem to have decreased slightly – and Ghent, cities such as Mechelen and Ostend follow, then the Brussels municipality of Ixelles, then the city of Brussels.
READ ALSO. 11 bicycles stolen every day in Antwerp: “More and more professional gangs, increasingly expensive bicycles”
No bicycle stolen
In 2022, there were 9 (small) Flemish municipalities where they were completely spared from bicycle theft. This includes the Limburg municipalities of Gingelom and Nieuwerkerken, or the East Flemish Sint-Laureins.
Nevertheless, bicycle thefts remain “a plague” in many cities and municipalities, said Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) on Tuesday at the presentation of the MyBike sticker. According to figures requested by Green MP Eva Platteau, only about 10 percent of stolen bicycles are ultimately recovered.
Platteau, who has also seen 2 electric bicycles stolen, hopes that greater attention from the police and the judiciary will reduce the number of bicycle thefts significantly in the coming years. “People today have more expensive bicycles, for example because they have an electric bicycle. Which means the financial impact is also much greater.”
READ ALSO. Antwerp is investigating the use of decoy bicycles, but does not consider it a panacea
