Google Map shows stolen bike hot spots
Posted by Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) on January 24th, 2007 at 8:23 am
The Stolen Bike Listings just took a nice step up. Michael Jones, the man behind Finetoothcog, just completed one of the main features we planned since we joined forces back in June.
He has combined stolen bike location data with Google Maps to provide a nifty view of where bikes get nabbed.
All the stolen bike listings on BikePortland.org are automatically entered into Finetoothcog. Michael points out that this data, combined with the theft location and Google Maps can tell us:
- Where police should conduct bike sting operations.
- The worst places to lock your bike in Portland.
- How many bikes are stolen in our neighborhoods.
Now, Michael wants to team up with the Police Bureau's efforts to share this tool and to help facilitate the theft reporting process. Stay tuned for developments... when you're as smart as Michael, there's really no limit to what you can do.
[Update: Michael says if the points aren't visible on the map, just wait a few seconds for them to load.]
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Very cool technology. There is also a way to port the same data so people can view it in the GoogleEarth standalone application.
RecommendedLooks like downtown, inner SE and inner NE are the worst. No big surprise there, those are the parts of town with the largest number of riders.
RecommendedSo is anybody doing anything about this epidemic? Who is stealing the bikes and why and where are all these bikes going?
RecommendedIt looks like there are more bike stolen than there are comments every day!
Also I was noticing that now they steal more high end bikes and from inside houses, is that true?
Well, Jonathan thanks for this awesome service, I hope somebody out there is listening and can start doing something about it. For one thing I believe it should be illegal to sell locks that can be opened so easily as most cables are.
Ciao
Paolo
Is there a way to use the colors to show the time the bikes were stolen. For example bright read is with in 48 hours shading to yellow as time passes.
The reason is that this would help to know where the most currently active spots are visually and I cold be more vigilant in these areas.
Recommended[...] really find anything like I expected but I did find some other tales of lost (stolen) bikes, and a google map on some of the worst places for bike theft.. Filed under Copen. capers, green [...]
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