In the Netherlands, and especially in the urban areas, there is a fair change of having one's own bicycle stolen. The risk is so high that many people decide not to buy a bicycle or, if they do, not to use it as often as they would like. Bicycle theft is a significant obstruction to the Dutch government bicycle policy, which plans to heavily promote the use of bicycles in the coming years. The Bicycle Master Plan outlines a coherent government policy for the bicycle traffic stimulation. One of the targets is a reduction in bicycle theft. In order to reach this objective, activities are developed and implemented over a wide area. This paper focuses on the bicycle theft problem. It briefly describes this problem from the government's point of view, and outlines the approach and state of affairs from the Bicycle Master Plan's viewpoint.
Samenvatting