Say ‘hands off my bike!’ to cycle theft

10/1/13

- One bike stolen every minute, but just one in four reported

- £50,000 challenge aims to reduce bike theft - 18 January closing date

- Judges announced

Over half a million bikes are stolen in the UK every year and just five per cent are recovered¹, putting a strain of public resources, leaving commuters stranded and meaning that thousands of cyclists hang up their helmet for good.

Nesta, the UK's innovation foundation, has set a challenge to combat bike theft and get people back on two wheels for good: Hands off my bike. The challenge, which is due to close on 18 January, is open to all UK adults - from cycling enthusiasts to crime busting designers - and offers a £50,000 prize for the innovation takes the longest time to steal a bike. 

With hundreds of shiny new and 'new to me' bikes expected to have been unwrapped over Christmas, contributing to the 3m bikes² bought in the UK each year, the scale of the problem is not underestimated. LV= Home Insurance³ for example, has shown that one in five cyclists is a victim of bike theft, and although most expect to own their bikes for ten years, in fact they only get to keep them for 23 months before they are taken.

Cyclists are also more likely to have their bikes stolen than motorcyclists or car owners. Once a victim, two thirds cycle less often a 24 per cent of people don't get back on a bike again⁴.

Tris Dyson, director of Nesta's Centre for Challenge Prizes, explains, "We hope that Hands off my bike uncovers breakthrough innovations to make it more difficult to steal bikes, and, in turn, numbers of people cycling in the UK."

Andrew Knights, Managing Director of BikeRegister, the UK's leading online bicycle identification and registration initiative, said: "Bike theft continues to be a massive problem across the UK but we have found that it is sometimes the quick and simple ideas such as the visible deterrent of bike marking that can cause thieves to think twice before striking. 'Hands off my bike' is an important challenge and we will be very interested in seeing how the winning innovation could be developed to help reduce and deter bike theft in the UK."

The winning Hands off my bike innovation will be the one that requires the longest time to free the bike. The innovation will be also judged on the impact on the environment, cost and potential for commercialisation and/or implementation at scale.

Judges of the challenge include Brompton's managing director, Will Butler-Adams, and award-winning UK designer and Sustrans patron, Wayne Hemingway MBE, along with other experts from a range of bike retail, cycling, security and design backgrounds. The panel will also include Shenol Shaddouh, a former prolific bike thief who has since retrained as a bike mechanic and has been developing his own design of bike lock with the help and support of social enterprise, Bikeworks.

For tips and advice on entering the challenge see the Hands off my bike workshop video. Application to the challenge is through online submission only at www.nesta.org.uk/handsoffmybike and the deadline is 12 noon on 18 January 2013.

-Ends-

Notes to editor

For media enquires please contact Sarah Reardon (sarah.reardon@nesta.org.uk) or Guy Bilgorri (guy.bilgorri@nesta.org.uk) or call 020 7438 2606 / 2611 

The challenge is open to any UK legal resident aged 14 or over or organisation with a UK base that comes up with an innovation to make it more difficult to steal bikes. Employees of Nesta, other individuals working on the project, and their immediate families are not eligible to enter

¹ Bike theft in the UK in 2010 - ONS

² From Colibi and Coliped industry survey http://www.coliped.com/docs/issuu/European%20Bicycle%20Market%20&%20Industry%20Profile%20-%20Edition%202012.pdf

³ From LV Home Insurance Research 'Bike Black Market Booming' (Dec 2012)

⁴ BikeOff: http://www.bikeoff.org/design_resource/ABT_problem_why_prevent.shtml

About Challenge Prizes:

Challenge prizes, also called 'inducement' prizes, offer a reward to whoever can first, or most effectively, meet a defined challenge. They act as an incentive for meeting a specific challenge, rather than an award for past achievements.

Famous examples of challenge prizes include the Ansari X-Prize for manned private spaceflight, the 18th century Longitude Prize to help British navigators, or the 20th century Schneider Trophy for aviation, which inspired the Spitfire.

Offering cash prizes to incentivise breakthrough innovations is a time-honoured practice. Today, the practice of using prizes to stimulate innovation is back. As collaborative and open innovation grows in importance, and as web platforms enable crowdsourcing and collaboration on a massive scale, we are witnessing a revolution in the importance of challenge prizes for innovation. Experiments in spurring innovation with prizes are now taking place around the world, by governments, corporations and charities - tackling both technical and social challenges.

The Centre for Challenge Prizes was launched to bring together the growing expertise and interest in challenge prizes and to help build understanding of how challenge prizes can play an effective and strategic role in the stimulation and support of innovation.

About Nesta:  www.nesta.org.uk

Nesta is the UK's innovation foundation. We help people and organisations bring great ideas to life. We do this by providing investments and grants and mobilising research, networks and skills.

We are an independent charity and our work is enabled by an endowment from the National Lottery. Nesta Operating Company is a registered charity in England and Wales with a company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SC042833. Registered office: 1 Plough Place, London, EC4A 1DE.