Not a One-Man Job

From KGW Portland, the story of a cyclist who has taken it upon himself to scope out and photograph possibly stolen bikes—and try to return them to their owners:

Mapped

Last week Bike Index founder Seth Herr announced that the registry's bike theft data is now available in map form. 

Visit map.bikewise.org and zoom in on a location of interest. The map will display the 100 most recent thefts in the area you're viewing, color-coded according to how long ago the theft occurred. Click on a color in the legend to filter by time period.

Here's D.C.:

In his announcement about the map, Herr touted it as "more than a pretty picture." In addition to its support of search and browsing through time, map.bikewise.org links back to the Bike Index reports about the thefts mapped.  

Look familiar??

It's easy to use and interesting from a data visualization standpoint, but, however well-executed and information-rich, a map of bike thefts still saddens me.

"YouR Bike wAs STOLEN BUT WE Caught the guy"

I so wish I knew more about the story behind this photo. 

Here's as much as I can piece together: Someone left his or her bike locked to or propped against a white birch (I think...) on or near the campus of Trinity College Dublin. Someone other than the owner made off with the bike, but didn't get very far: Trinity College security guards accosted the would-be thief, took the bike for safekeeping, and left a note apprising the bike's owner of what had gone down and how to collect the thankfully-not-stolen property.

I hereby second the sentiment expressed in The Daily Edge: "We salute you Trinity security guards, and commend your legible handwriting and careful use of thumb tacks." 

(And credit to Janet Newenham for taking and distributing the photo.)