Safer motorcycle parking?

I read a spatial analysis paper which mapped crimes in a city (Wollongong I think) spatially, and then did surveys about what areas people thought were dangerous and mapped them. It was interesting to see which areas where the two overlapped, and the place people thought were safe but weren’t, or vise versa.

I agree that some useful stat’s on where (and when) the dodgy parts of the city are would allow people to better keep safe.

As I don’t usually do much in the city, I wasn’t aware of it either, although I had heard that some of the parking areas had been designated, instead of a bunch of riders just parking in the spot. I didn’t know anything about a rail, and I guess I have been lucky not having had my scooter stolen or damaged in any way.

Incidentally (and a bit off topic), we had our first scootergal brunch and ride over the weekend, with a ride out to Gundaroo. ALl went well, with the only hitch being the brackets that hold my top box nearly coming off completely and scratching the back of my scooter.

Oh, and in terms of the stats about bike thefts, I’ll get on my old hobby-horse of the AFP simply not making available details of where crime is happening, so people have no idea of what areas are safe(r) and what are not.

If the AFP provided some decent information, then citizens can make informed decisions. And thereby themselves helping to reduce crime. Simple, but not to AFP media and hierarchy.

There’s quite a lot of anecdotal evidence that there had been a rise in motorbike thefts. I would imagine that a number of these would be bikes where there was a market for parts, and the Harley brigade comes to mind.

What the government has done makes sense, but some of the “flow-through” designs don’t work too well. One park that I use in Woden has so little space around ot that larger bikes can easily partially block the access, and other larger bikes just can’t fit through.

These are fine for scooters and 125s, but have real problems should someone rock up with their 2.3litre Triumph Rocket III.

Another vote for the didn’t know it existed option. Would also like to see that stat’s on thefts from those sites pre-metal rail.

I used to park next to the AFP building in Civic when I work in town. Never felt at risk there…

wasn’t even aware of it. sounds like a reasonable idea but I’d be interested to know how many bikes had been stolen from those areas previously.