RTÉ One's flagship current affairs TV programme, Prime Time, is tonight set to broadcast a programme on bike thefts. The broadcast is set to contain recordings of thefts on Irish streets, including as bystanders try to intervene.
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The programme's crew also set a test, keeping the cameras rolling, to see how long it takes for an e-bike to be stolen from a public street. Incidents if bike theft have become more and more common over the last decade as the number of expensive bikes and ebikes has increased as so many people have availed of the bike to work scheme.
The large increase in the number of expensive bikes in Ireland has been a charter for bike thieves, especially in Dublin. Groups of thieves now regularly target bikes locked on the street by cutting through the locks with hand-held angle grinders, often in busy areas during daylight hours and with little concern they may be caught.
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Dublin Cycling Campaign's Úna Morrison tells the programme, which airs at 9.35pm tonight, the impact of bikes being stolen is bigger than the inconvenience or financial costs.
"Of people whose bikes are stolen, nearly half either stop cycling or reduce how much they cycle," she says. "So think of how many more cars are on the road, how many more people are on the buses, or how many more people are trapped at home because their bike has been removed."
