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Introduction

This section will review schemes that help integrate the bicycle into our daily way of life (many of which operate to help reduce crime) and presents case studies of schemes from the international context, that discuss:

(1) Registration and Management of Bicycles
(2) Advocacy and Community Groups

What constitutes a bicycle 'scheme' depends on how you define the word. There are three dominant definitions of the word 'scheme' in use.

• The first relates to the idea of 'an elaborate and systematic plan of action' i.e. system: 'a group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole'.

• The second definition of 'scheme' connects the word to criminal activity i.e. 'A dodge: a statement that evades the question by cleverness or trickery' or 'a form of behaviour intrigues (for) in an underhand manner'.

•The third definition connects the idea of 'scheme' to notions about representation i.e. 'schema: an internal representation of the world; an organization of concepts and actions that can be revised by new information about the world'.

This section does its best to include bicycle schemes that relate to all three definitions of the word described above. Our aim is to give a cross section of significant examples, focussing on those which have been implemented, often by local government or national authorities, with the objective or result of getting more people onto bikes while keeping both the cyclist and the cycles safe in the process.

The first two sections assess benchmark bicycle schemes that have been successful, but also interrogate how robust such schemes are in deterring criminals who scheme to steal bikes and thus make a profit from bike crime.

Theft and vandalism of bicycles has the effect of compromising the bike as a sustainable transport system because research shows that of the 17% of cyclist experience bicycle theft., 24% stop cycling and 66% cycle less often (DTR/TRL 1996).

Getting smart about crime, is a significant part of this review of schemes, but dreaming about how to make the bike an essential part of our lives and the world a better place, is also what this design resource aims to achieve.

The final section on advocacy and community bicycle schemes, aims to inspire users not just to innovate in design terms, but also to innovate in social terms.

We hope you enjoy reading the material here and will communicate with us via our blog about other schemes you think we should also include.