[stevenwoo]

It's already impossible to park a non department store bike of any value anywhere in an urban area of the United States without the risk of it getting stolen. It's probably one of the factors in why some people might not commute for errands even if everything else was favorable - a bike decent enough to warrant a ride is a target for thieves. The bike thief community in San Francisco/Oakland/Santa Cruz has been thriving since all the locals I know here have been kids in the 80's (when Lemond revived the upscale bike industry in the USA.)

[soared]

This is plainly not true. In 99% of America (read: not cali, nyc, etc) if you lock your bike up it won't get stolen.

[brewdad]

You'll have to add Portland and Seattle to that list as well as any city with a large university. If there is a large community of cyclists, there will be bike thieves working hard to separate them from their bikes.

[stevenwoo]

I will grant you by virtue of there being more people in California and New York City, there will be more of everything. But for there to be $350,000,000 US worth of bicycles stolen every year (estimate is old) the problem is more common than you might think. https://priceonomics.com/post/30393216796/what-happens-to-st...

[theparanoid]

I'm in a suburb and had the seat stolen off a department store bike.

[stevenwoo]

I have some friends in San Diego and they had department store bikes not visible from the street in a fenced in carport and they were stolen so now they lock their replacement bikes up and painted them to look like junk.

[jdavis703]

So bring a skateboard or scooter if you're doing a quick errand. You can easily bring them inside, and if it's stolen you're only out $100-200.