- Mechanism of the LOM (Orientation law for mobility), all new bicycles sold in stores must now bear a unique identification number to which the owner’s contact details will be attached.
- The measure, viewed favorably by user associations as well as by the Union sport et cycle, will already make it possible to return to their owners a greater part of the few 100 . stolen bikes found each year in France.
- It also aims to pull the rug out from under the traffickers’ feet by making resale on the second-hand market more complicated. But for that to work, it will not only be necessary to be satisfied with marking the new bikes…
New reduction in the housing tax, the minimum wage increased by 0, 100%, homeopathy no longer covered by Health Insurance, border controls between France and the United Kingdom restored… In the list of what changes in this year 2021, you should add bicycle marking. All new bicycles sold in stores must now carry a “unique identifier” – a ten-digit alphanumeric code – to which will be attached the contact details of the owner.
So far, this practice was already possible , but left to the goodwill of the owners. The mobility orientation law (LOM) of 24 December 2019 planned to make it mandatory. It has been effective since January 1, “with a tolerance period over the first trimester 2020, the time for all actors to comply with the law, the regulatory text having been published on 28 December ”, specifies Patrick Guinard, administrator of the ‘Union sport et cycle , which federates bicycle brands and points of sale, but also president of
the Promotion Association and ‘cycle identification (Apic).
Between 300. 000 and 400. bikes stolen per year
It is the latter who will be responsible for keeping the file up to date yesterday national of these “marked” bikes. Label, engraving or chemical process… The technique for affixing this number is left free. “The decree simply specifies that it must be read without difficulty on a stationary cycle and that the affixing process must guarantee the permanence of this one and its inalterability, except in the event of voluntary degradation”, details Patrick Guinard.
What to cool thieves? The stated goal is in any case to tackle one of the brakes on cycling in France. “Before, people were especially afraid of cycling, begins Olivier Schneider, president of the Federation bicycle users (FUB) . Now that communities are investing in improvements to make journeys safer, what is increasingly dissuading from buying a bicycle is the fear of getting stung, quite simply. ” More than 318. bicycles were stolen from 400, according to the investigation report “Living and security environment” of the Ministry of the Interior , “a figure that we know is below reality, a good number of victims who did not lodge a complaint ”, indicates Olivier Schneider. Return bicycles, complicate the resale of stolen bicycles
This unique identification number will not prevent thefts, nor allow the perpetrators to be tracked. The hope is that it will bring smiles back to owners of stolen bicycles and unclog police stations. “That’s the whole problem today,” points out Olivier Schneider. On the 300. at 400. 000 bikes stolen every year, 99. 000 are found, but only a handful , barely 7. , can be returned to their owners because they are identifiable. ” The rest ? “They pile up for a while in the police stations before very often ending up in the landfill”, slips Patrick Guinard.
Having a chance to find your bike is not the only expected benefit. “With this identification number, the idea is also to cut the grass from under the feet of traffickers by limiting the resale capacity”, anticipates Jean-Sébastien Catier, president of Paris en selle , bicycle promotion association in the Paris area. A large part of their booty is now sold on the second-hand market, via more or less informal circuits. Typically on the leboncoin.fr site. A market that should become even more important in the coming months, when “many French people are looking to acquire bicycles and there are few stocks of new bicycles in the shops”, continues Jean-Sébastien Catier. The identification number can then serve as a benchmark for a buyer concerned with avoiding concealment. “He will already be able to verify that the number is correctly linked to the person selling the bicycle,” begins Patrick Guinard. Above all, the number must be difficult enough to remove that any attempt will leave traces and make the transaction shady. “
” Create a collective reflex as quickly as possible “
Marking of bikes has limits. It should only slightly hinder international traffic, in which bicycles stolen in France are shipped abroad as quickly as possible. “Moreover, if we only brand new bikes, only a tiny fraction of 24 millions of bikes in the French fleet will be identified ”, fears Olivier Schneider. The decree provides that the identification obligation is extended to second-hand bicycles sold by professionals from July 1. This leaves aside transactions between individuals. “We will have to create a collective reflex as quickly as possible,” pushes the president of the FUB. That is, buyers always demand that the bike be marked, even if the seller is an individual, and that owners have their bikes marked on their own initiative. “
The system could then be a good complement to GPS trackers . These equip a growing number of bicycles and allow it to be tracked if it has been stolen. It is one of these tools which, in mid-December, enabled a Strasbourg municipal councilor to find his stolen electric bike six months earlier in the Paris region. “These trackers are set to develop,” says Patrick Guinard, who nevertheless points to their still significant price. as the current brake. “In addition, the more bikes are equipped, the more skillful thieves will become to outsmart them, especially if only a handful of models dominate the market,” adds Olivier Schneider.