If you’re like me, your bike was stolen this weekend.
It was violating and frightening, but also a staggeringly common occurrence here in Champaign-Urbana. Luckily, the good folks at Neutral Cycle are trying to combat bike thieves with an electronic database called BikeNet, which operates in an app. In order to bring BikeNet to C-U, Neutral has also unveiled a Kickstarter fundraiser to help fund the project, which can be found here.
For more info, check out Neutral’s Kickstarter video and press release below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Ricardo PierreLouis
Phone: (773) 5127725
Email: [email protected]
Community Bike Shop Fights Bike Crime
Champaign, IL (June 20, 2016) For some people, bicycles are a path to a better life: they are access to food, knowledge, opportunities and a future. Previous research conducted by Neutral Cycle found that $143,107 worth of bicycles were reported stolen over a two year period inChampaignUrbana alone. On a campus as large as the U of I, searching for a missing bike is not only cumbersome but also highly inefficient. Even if a stolen bike is found, figuring out how to return it to the proper owner is nearly impossible.
The current system of fighting bike theft is broken. Criminals are using this to their advantage to easily steal and sell bikes across campus. BikeNet is a bike crime fighting app designed to improve and finetune the bike recovery system. It uses the eyes and ears of the community to facilitate tracking, reporting and recovering stolen/missing bikes.
With this convenient app, BikeNet users will be able to:
● Register their bike(s) on the website/mobile platform
● Report missing bikes through the app
● Notify the community about witnessed bike thefts or found bikes
A KickStarter for BikeNet was launched June 17 and will run for 30 days. It can be accessed at
the following URL:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1863731785/bikenet-the-bicycle-crime-fighting-app