BikeNet: An App to Fight Bike Theft

For over a year, Neutral Cycle and Neutral Design Studio have been quietly building a program to address the problem of bike theft. Now we're asking for your help.

Click here to donate to the BikeNet Kickstarter.

We've written about bike theft in C-U again and again and again. In Champaign-Urbana alone, nearly $150,000 in bikes were reported as stolen over a two-year period. And because of the low-level of theft reporting, the real number is at least double that. Bike theft is no small issue. For many individuals, bikes are their main form of transportation and the loss of their bike can have a massive impact on their lives.At Neutral, we're not just interested in analyzing the data, we're interested in creating solutions. That's why we've built BikeNet, a web, iOS, and Android app that offers a three-pronged attack against bike theft: registration, reporting, and recovery. BikeNet is an easy-to-use tool that empowers communities to work together to fight bike crime in their neighborhoods by harnessing our collective eyes and ears.We're sick of bikes being stolen from us and our friends. BikeNet is our way of making theft less frequent and recovery more likely.To learn more about BikeNet, check out their website and like them on Facebook.If you want to join with us to make BikeNet a reality, visit the BikeNet Kickstarter page.