The Tucson Police Department has completed work on a voluntary bicycle registration website that will allow Tucson cyclists to register their bikes online and allow officers to locate the owners of found or stolen bikes.
“It is basically a free way for you to keep track of your bicycles and for us to access that information,” Tucson Police Department patrol officer Jesse Cornia told the Tucson Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee during their meeting Wednesday.
According to Cornia, he worked with local web development company Ephibian which developed the site for free.
The site, which has been completed, is not yet live because the city’s IT department is reviewing it to ensure it is up to their security standards.
Cornia said he did not know when it would be live, but said it is a priority in the police department and hopes to have it live soon.
“My preference would be to get it up next week,” Cornia said. “As far as our a city IT department goes though, they are kind of inundated with a lot of stuff.”
Once the site is live, users will be able to create a profile, add an unlimited number of bicycles and add the serial number, make, model, color and more. Users can also add an image of the bike.
If your bike is reported stolen and you have registered your bike on the site, TPD can check the serial number against the pawnshop database.
“Whenever anyone pawns an item they make a copy of your ID and a fingerprint,” Cornia said. “All things with serial numbers go into database we call Leads Online.”
Cornia said detectives can compare databases and locate the owner if a stolen bike turns up at a pawn shop.
Currently there is not a way for the University of Arizona and TPD to combine their databases, but a he said he hoped the registry would be utilized by other jurisdictions as well.
The site will also allow TPD officers to post information about bikes they find.
TPCBAC members asked if photos would be posted with the description of the bike. Cornia said they weren’t going to include images of the bikes because it would make it too easy for someone to try to claim a bike that isn’t theirs.
Mayor’s Chief of Staff presents transportation tools
The mayor’s chief of staff Andrew Greenhill presented two online transportation applications the city has developed.
One is SeeClickFix.com, which I wrote about before and allows members of the public to report maintainence issues like potholes and graffiti.
Greenhill said he hoped cyclists would use this site or accompanying smart-phone applications to report road hazards they encounter.
The second web application Greenhill presented was a site that provides real time tracking of buses on their routes. It allows bus riders to know whether their bus is early, on-time or late.
Executive subcommittee to proceed with 3 percent increase in bike commuters
Members of the executive subcommittee presented their goal of increasing bicycle commuting from two percent to five percent in the next 10 years.
Ann Chanecka asked the TPCBAC to set a goal based on feedback from the League of American Bicyclists on Tucson’s last bicycle friendly application.
TPCBAC member Kevin McDonald said they should build in mini goals to make sure the the increase is on track.
“It is basically to track progress on how we are doing,” McDonald said. “Are we getting there? Are we behind? Are we ahead?”
** additional 3% in bike commuters/riders **
That's a tall order for the BAC.
20,000 riders to 50,000.
2+ more riders for every 1 out there.
It will require a massive outreach to people
who don't currently ride and a degree of support
from the city and county that I don't think they've
seen.
All cyclists need to help the BAC out with ideas on
this one.
[…] across the continent — kicked off on Tuesday for women, Wednesday for men. Tucson police offer a free, voluntary website to register your bike in case of theft; not a bad idea for the LAPD to consider. D.C.’s new […]
Maybe this is or has been done, but i like the idea of neighborhood workshops (ride-alongs?) to show people/families the best routes to school, grocerystores, work etc.
Another key part will be the better bike parking regs that the City is currenlty working on.
Finally, Bike to Work week needs to be moved from yearly to quarterly to monthly to bike to work day every week etc. Related – the business discounts that are common during the 'ride to work' week need to expand to non special event times. I think this is happening some already.
There's my 3 cents.
Cog – and that's assuming a static population growth.
It's an admirable goal and all, but am I a bad advocate for suggesting that we should just give people the space to do what they want to do? I ride because I enjoy it – if I didn't, no amount of cajoling, bike lanes, additional racks, or any sort of government program would get me to do so.
You're exactly right, Colby. What is at the destination
determines what form of transpo is taken. Too bad the
parking updates are not retroactive.
Because if only 6-7 places out of ten accommodate
convenient bike parking, bike consideration is lost.
I like the focus on Bike to Work because that forms the
habit. A co-worker once asked me why I biked to work
on rainy days…I said the same reason you don't bike
to work on sunny days. Just habit. Considering the car
was not in the picture. I had set myself up to deal with
conditions of the commute…..committed to cycling.
I was thinking about this today on bike errands:
People aren't going to put up with this headwind…
People aren't going to put up with sweating….
People aren't going to put up with no place to secure
the bike and stuff you've bought at various stops along
the way…..
People aren't going to put up with the heat or how
much longer it takes to do errands.
The current 2,000 cyclists like cycling enough to put up
with the stuff of cycling…they are the 'low hanging fruit'.
(ie., we were easy)
The next 3,000 will have to get past the convenience of
the car plus experience commitment along and at the end
of the route to be considered a successful addition.
Which neighborhood do people think is the best
biking neighborhood? (Not neighborhood to bike
in, but best at biking)
Maybe this is or has been done, but i like the idea of neighborhood workshops (ride-alongs?) to show people/families the best routes to school, grocerystores, work etc.
Another key part will be the better bike parking regs that the City is currenlty working on.
Finally, Bike to Work week needs to be moved from yearly to quarterly to monthly to bike to work day every week etc. Related – the business discounts that are common during the 'ride to work' week need to expand to non special event times. I think this is happening some already.
There's my 3 cents.
Cog – and that's assuming a static population growth.
It's an admirable goal and all, but am I a bad advocate for suggesting that we should just give people the space to do what they want to do? I ride because I enjoy it – if I didn't, no amount of cajoling, bike lanes, additional racks, or any sort of government program would get me to do so.
You're exactly right, Colby. What is at the destination
determines what form of transpo is taken. Too bad the
parking updates are not retroactive.
Because if only 6-7 places out of ten accommodate
convenient bike parking, bike consideration is lost.
I like the focus on Bike to Work because that forms the
habit. A co-worker once asked me why I biked to work
on rainy days…I said the same reason you don't bike
to work on sunny days. Just habit. Considering the car
was not in the picture. I had set myself up to deal with
conditions of the commute…..committed to cycling.
I was thinking about this today on bike errands:
People aren't going to put up with this headwind…
People aren't going to put up with sweating….
People aren't going to put up with no place to secure
the bike and stuff you've bought at various stops along
the way…..
People aren't going to put up with the heat or how
much longer it takes to do errands.
The current 2,000 cyclists like cycling enough to put up
with the stuff of cycling…they are the 'low hanging fruit'.
(ie., we were easy)
The next 3,000 will have to get past the convenience of
the car plus experience commitment along and at the end
of the route to be considered a successful addition.
Which neighborhood do people think is the best
biking neighborhood? (Not neighborhood to bike
in, but best at biking)
This article is almost two years old. I was on TPD’s website and couldn’t seem to find anything. Any word?
Good catch; Red Star has been kind of wondering about this. A good idea fell through the cracks and died. Unless there is grant funding, our police department doesn’t do much for cyclists and that goes unreported in media.