road.cc. the popular online cycle news site has published an interesting story concerning and expected rise in bike crime as students return to university this month.

Cambridge is one of the worst effected cities as accoring to road.cc there were 1,433 cycle thefts between January- July, prompting a police crackdown on the crime, but there is a massive increase in bikes being stolen during autumn as 30,000 university students arrive in the city.

In October 2006 and 2007, more than 300 bikes were stolen, and this compared to 140 in April 2006 and 170 during the same month in 2007 and 2008. The figure fell to around 225 last year, but due to the increase in bike thefts in other months this year police are expecting a record number this month.

Cambridge City Councillor Lewis Herbert has called for more secure areas for cyclists to leave bikes and told Cambridge News:

I hope the publicity campaign helps but I am still worried and very concerned at risk of a major outbreak of thefts in the autumn and the high theft figures through 2009.

There is organised theft across the city of bikes not locked to fixtures and the problem of new bikes and new students in the autumn. Cycle theft is probably the biggest readily reducible set of crimes in the city and as Cambridgeshire Chief Constable Julie Spence and others like me have said, it needs a far tougher set of initiatives to crack it.

Sgt Gordon Morgenthaler of Cambridgeshire Police has teamed up with Cambridge City Council and the Cambridge Cycling Campaign as well as cycle shops in the city to raise awareness about the crime, and he is asking people to register their bikes on immobilise.com.

For more interesting figures and to read the source article in full please go to: road.cc