Bike thefts have increased across the country since the start of the Covid19 pandemic with the most noticeable jump in the Dublin area.
As the country began to open up again and people began returning to work in June, many taking to bikes, the number of bike thefts in Dublin surged by almost 50 per cent.
In June, the increase in bike thefts nationally was 40 per cent, largely driven by the Dublin figures which account for two thirds of all bike thefts in the Republic.
Nationally, gardai have witnessed an increase of nine percent of bike thefts during the full pandemic period; from March 25th until July 5th, the most recent date figures are available for.
In the Dublin region bike thefts were up by 11 per cent,
to 1,124 cases, in the 3½ month pandemic period while in the Eastern region –
which excludes Dublin – bike thefts were up by six per cent.
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There was an 18 per cent increase in the North West
region while in the southern region the rate of increase was very modest, at
just one per cent.
Interestingly, in the months of March and April the number of bike thefts carried out across the country decreased.
This was probably because fewer people were cycling for transport and locking their bikes at, or outside, their places of work. Burglary rates also decreased significantly during the same period, which also likely added to the fall in bike thefts.
For example, in March 2019 there were 360 bike thefts nationally and that dropped to 316 thefts in March of this year. In April, the number of bike thefts last year was 379, but dropped to 310 this year.
But in May of this year, as people began moving around
more and some people began returning to work and other activities, the number
of bikes being stole increased again – 542 thefts in May of this year, up from
497 thefts last year.
That small increase in thefts then gathered significant pace in June when bike thefts increased by 40 per cent nationally; reaching 600 thefts, up from 428 in June of last year.
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