Bike not permitted in hostel : bike knicked overnight outside

[alexnharvey]

I think the uk is particularly bad for theft, no? In my experience people respect property more on continental Europe and North America. Agree or disagree?

Disagree. There's such variation within each of those huge geographic areas to make any attempt to compare between them absolutely meaningless.

For example, my experience of living in downtown Baltimore, plagued by drug problems, was that respect for property and indeed life was lacking. (Still number 21 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... urder_rate)

I lost two bikes in the five years I lived there and was regularly asked to stop and handover my bike as I rode through the West of the city. I don't recall that ever happening anywhere else I've lived. However, overall a USA has a lower theft statistic than the UK.

It's tempting to suggest that it's a problem of cities rather than of countries. However, the last time I compared cities and less densely populated areas there was large variation in deprivation and the various consequences of it.

[pwa]

I think the uk is particularly bad for theft, no? In my experience people respect property more on continental Europe and North America. Agree or disagree?

Disagree. There's such variation within each of those huge geographic areas to make any attempt to compare between them absolutely meaningless.

For example, my experience of living in downtown Baltimore, plagued by drug problems, was that respect for property and indeed life was lacking. (Still number 21 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... urder_rate)

I lost two bikes in the five years I lived there and was regularly asked to stop and handover my bike as I rode through the West of the city. I don't recall that ever happening anywhere else I've lived. However, overall a USA has a lower theft statistic than the UK.

It's tempting to suggest that it's a problem of cities rather than of countries. However, the last time I compared cities and less densely populated areas there was large variation in deprivation and the various consequences of it.

I left my tourer in the drive yesterday after a ride, intending to put it away before driving to a place 25 miles away. I forgot. The bike was still in the drive when I got back. I have left it out overnight in the past, visible from the street. We have very little crime here. But I could go fifteen miles down the road and be in a neighbourhood where theft is more of a problem. Even there, though, most of the people you would meet would be decent and friendly.

The worst places I have been to, with regard to theft, are London and Paris.

[Lance Dopestrong]

Disagree. There's such variation within each of those huge geographic areas to make any attempt to compare between them absolutely meaningless.

For example, my experience of living in downtown Baltimore, plagued by drug problems, was that respect for property and indeed life was lacking. (Still number 21 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... urder_rate)

I lost two bikes in the five years I lived there and was regularly asked to stop and handover my bike as I rode through the West of the city. I don't recall that ever happening anywhere else I've lived. However, overall a USA has a lower theft statistic than the UK.

It's tempting to suggest that it's a problem of cities rather than of countries. However, the last time I compared cities and less densely populated areas there was large variation in deprivation and the various consequences of it.

I mjust agree. I did some contracting for a while. Armed bodyguarding and driving. Not in Afghanistan. Not in Iraq. Not even on the boats, although that was financially quite enticing.

No, it was in Pennsylvania, so midwives could get in and out of the Philly at night without being violently robbed. Theft can be a problem in the UK, but not so bad that midwives have to be escorted by tooled up ex military heavies when on calls to inner city areas.

I had a dull 6 months, apart from the very minor had no incidents at all, but the large medical firm that had engaged the contractor I'd signed up with had felt it enough of a problem to pay very serious money. I earned 70k for 6 months work, and there were 3 of us in the clinic I worked from alone, so they were investing massive money to protect their staff and assets. And theres supposed to be a theft problem in the UK, eh...?

Almost exactly 50% of theft in the UK if of unsecured items, and from insecure premises. By the simple expedient of locking things the theft rate in the UK would halve. That's of no consolation to the hostel dweller that inspired this thread, but worth considering next time someone tells us the UK has a theft problem.




(I carried the Taser C2 and the early version of the Walther PPQ, if anyone is interested. I liked the ergonomics of the Walther, and the C2 is marketed at ladies and it's small size meant it went in a jacket pocket without the need for a second holster)

[PDQ Mobile]

And yet I grew up in an England where young women nearly always could walk safely alone.
They could even hitchhike, something one could never countenance today.

There was a sense of gentle(wo)manly respect for others.
A last leftover perhaps from an earlier pre-conflict(s) time.

The comparison with America is not really what is relavent to the discussion. But rather with Western Europe.

I bemoaned, in that first post, the state of what parts of England (UK?) had become.
So changed from those halcyon days of my youth.
Not that there wasn't some poor behaviour But rather that it had become more commonplace and indeed accepted.
That very acceptance leads to Lance's above post.
Our society thinks it is preferable to pay vast sums of taxation to preserve "security"; money to a large degree out of the poorest pockets no doubt,

It is exactly that rather simplistic solution that, IMV, is short sighted.

Had the huge sums of monies that have been put into "security" been invested instead in more social equality and better infrastructure, it is my view that many of the social problems we see today could have been ameliorated.

That possibility is ever more unlikely in Trump's America. He is actively sponsored by the gun lobby.

It remains one of the great plusses of the UK, the lack of weapons within society in general.
It has a value beyond measure.

Yet the general trend is towards a society that accepts such carrying of arms as necessary.
It goes in some ways hand in hand with the carrying of knives and petty theft.
It is my experience that it has become rather worse in parts of the UK in the last decade(or2?) or so.
I feel on my travels that many parts of Europe retain more of a sense of civil responsibility, more respect and politeness.
It IS anecdotal of course, yet from my perspective quite real.

"pwa"'s ability to leave his bike unlocked and find it still there could be more widespread but sadly is not.

I think he is correct about London and Paris. But there are other European towns where bike theft is more rare IMHO.
Litter is less prevalent and politeness and courtesy remain rather commonplace.
These small but important things add a quality of life that cannot be simply quantified. A sense of security and perhaps freedom.
And those self same qualities cannot be bought, they can only be produced by the people and Govts that make up society.
Trump and his ilk miss this quintessential point. And they are, in spite all they have, all the poorer for it.

[pete75]

The other side of the coin is just what a sad place much of England (UK?) has become.
Lock up everything. Pay for everything.
No smiles from strangers.

It takes away so much quality of life.

[youtube]PT0ay9u1gg4[/youtube]

[reohn2]

and it seems the London 'disease' is spreading,the headphones on head down don't make eye contact approach to strangers can be encountered up here in the frozen north west England too

[mjr]

:lol: and it seems the London 'disease' is spreading,the headphones on head down don't make eye contact approach to strangers can be encountered up here in the frozen north west England too

In the east, we seem to have a town/country divide, with people happy to say hello in the country, but looking at you suspiciously in towns. Except Norwich city, whose inhabitants are mostly lovely nutters.

[reohn2]

:lol: and it seems the London 'disease' is spreading,the headphones on head down don't make eye contact approach to strangers can be encountered up here in the frozen north west England too

In the east, we seem to have a town/country divide, with people happy to say hello in the country, but looking at you suspiciously in towns. Except Norwich city, whose inhabitants are mostly lovely nutters.

We were down your way last summer staying near Norwich and at West Runton then moving on to Sandringham with our touring caravan.
We found people very open and agreeable,but found Norwich a bit of a dump if I'm honest,with more than it's fair share of people who shout at the pigeons IYSWIM.
Lovely area of the country

[landsurfer]

I carried the Taser C2 and the early version of the Walther PPQ, if anyone is interested. I liked the ergonomics of the Walther, and the C2 is marketed at ladies and it's small size meant it went in a jacket pocket without the need for a second holster)

I'm a Browning 9mm user over many years, never got on with the Glock, i've got big hands and found the Walther problematic in rapid fire ... always thigh holsters. Never concealed.

[RickH]

I carried the Taser C2 and the early version of the Walther PPQ, if anyone is interested. I liked the ergonomics of the Walther, and the C2 is marketed at ladies and it's small size meant it went in a jacket pocket without the need for a second holster)

I'm a Browning 9mm user over many years, never got on with the Glock, i've got big hands and found the Walther problematic in rapid fire ... always thigh holsters. Never concealed.

Me, I usually carry a minipump. If I'm in the car I'll often take a track pump for something more heavy duty!

[reohn2]

I carried the Taser C2 and the early version of the Walther PPQ, if anyone is interested. I liked the ergonomics of the Walther, and the C2 is marketed at ladies and it's small size meant it went in a jacket pocket without the need for a second holster)

I'm a Browning 9mm user over many years, never got on with the Glock, i've got big hands and found the Walther problematic in rapid fire ... always thigh holsters. Never concealed.

Me, I usually carry a minipump. If I'm in the car I'll often take a track pump for something more heavy duty!

Holster?

[RickH]

I'm a Browning 9mm user over many years, never got on with the Glock, i've got big hands and found the Walther problematic in rapid fire ... always thigh holsters. Never concealed.

Me, I usually carry a minipump. If I'm in the car I'll often take a track pump for something more heavy duty!

Holster?

Concealed carry for the minipump (in my seatpack usually)

[thelawnet]

I think it's the same guy got a penalty for cycling in the pedestrian area of Bedford. Doesn't seem to be having much luck.

He seems quite good at getting publicity though.

In February he got stopped in Bedford on his rtw journey

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=128164

He got as far as Calais before deciding to go home because he 'need more sponsors'

https://www.facebook.com/JoshQuigley199 ... 322807138/

On the 11th of March he set out again, lasting I think two days before going home.

He set off again on the 14th of April, doing 112km on the 14th, 123km on the 15th, 124km on the 16th, 151km on the 17th, 114km on the 18th, and then I think 111km on the 19th, reaching London.

He remained in London on the 20th and 21st, when his bike was stolen.

He btw seems to have had a cable lock on his bike, which I would expect any sort of bike that isn't apparently fit for the scrap site to be stolen in about 5 minutes in London?

I think there is a lot going on here, but one can only imagine that after apparently six attempts to cycle this journey, the next is no more likely to be successful.

[fastpedaller]

:lol: and it seems the London 'disease' is spreading,the headphones on head down don't make eye contact approach to strangers can be encountered up here in the frozen north west England too

In the east, we seem to have a town/country divide, with people happy to say hello in the country, but looking at you suspiciously in towns. Except Norwich city, whose inhabitants are mostly lovely nutters.

We moved to Norfolk 15 years ago, and in the local market town I thought the school youths were taking the #### one day when they moved to let Wife and I pass one the pavement and apologised for being in the way! What a refreshing change from the Essex town we had previously shopped in.
There seems to have been a bit of a downward spiral (but thankfully only small) in the last few years, however the developers and councils seem to be on a mission to turn Norfolk into 'little Essex'

[landsurfer]

Me, I usually carry a minipump. If I'm in the car I'll often take a track pump for something more heavy duty!

Holster?

Concealed carry for the minipump (in my seatpack usually)