The federal and regional Mobility Ministers officially launched “mybike” on Tuesday morning, the first free national register, accessible on a voluntary basis, for anyone who wishes to protect themselves more against bicycle theft.
Bike owners can register their two wheels on the platform mybike.belgium.beand identify it using a free sticker which will be given/sent to them.
The register is inspired by the existing Brussels model under the name MyBike.Brussels. The 50,000 cyclists who have already registered their bike will be invited to carry out a simplified operation to allow the transfer of their bike’s data to the data bank now coordinated at federal level.
The sticker, which cannot be removed after 24 hours, contains a unique code. The register to which the police services and Justice have access allows the owner of the bicycle, from the age of 13, to connect securely. He can save all the data on his bike there, but also report a theft.
Ownership of a bicycle can be transferred to the register transparently and securely in the event of resale.
With registration, police will be able to immediately identify the rightful owners and contact them when they find stolen bikes. The presence of a sticker will also have a deterrent effect.
For their part, potential buyers of a used bike will be able to scan the code available on the bike to ensure that it has not been reported stolen by its owner.
The official launch of “mybike” was carried out by the federal and regional Ministers of Mobility, Georges Gilkinet (federal), Elke Van den Brandt (Brussels), Philippe Henry (Wallonia) and Lydia Peeters (Flanders).
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Nearly 100,000 bicycles stolen each year in Belgium
Every year, nearly 100,000 bicycles are stolen in Belgium. Many of them are found by the police, but unable to return to their owners, ending up forgotten in storage areas.
According to data from the FPS Mobility, the majority of bicycle thefts take place in the public domain: either in a freely accessible bicycle parking lot (41%), or on public roads outside a bicycle parking lot (34%). . One in five thefts occur at home (20%), and 4% in closed bicycle parking spaces.
If the first instincts, following a bicycle theft, are to better secure it (through a better quality padlock or through a marking system), bicycle theft remains an obstacle to its use. It can discourage potential cyclists or cyclists.
