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Cycling on campus

eth0

its pure maths, nothing complicated -unless you are doing a B.A in "David Beckham studies"- we are always talking about the possibility of someones bike (or ours) getting stolen.

anyway

What you're looking at there is the probability of an individual bike being stolen every time one bike is stolen.

But that isn't going to tell you how likely your own bike will be stolen in a particular time frame, which is the important figure here. For that the number of bikes does play a factor as is will affect the rate at which bikes are stolen (look at two extremes, in a city with one bike there would be far fewer bike thefts than in a city with 9 million bicycles).

So, York has a lot of bike thefts in terms of numbers. of thefts But that is probably due to the large number of bikes to start with.

To comment on the likelihood of your bike being stolen in comparison to other places it is not enough to look at the number of thefts, but to compare the percentage of bikes which are stolen in different cities over the same time frame.

Reply 21

Dez

20

For the sake of argument let us say the national rate of bike theft is 10% per year.

In a city with n bicycles, a proportion of n/10 will be stolen.

If n were a relatively small number, say 500, only 50 bikes would be taken

In a city with more bikes, say 5000, around 500 bikes would be taken.

Therefore, we can conclude that the number of bikes is proportionate to the number of thefts.

Applied to York for Mathematics G102 MMath/M. :wink:

Dez

For the sake of argument let us say the national rate of bike theft is 10% per year.

In a city with n bicycles, a proportion of n/10 will be stolen.

If n were a relatively small number, say 500, only 50 bikes would be taken

In a city with more bikes, say 5000, around 500 bikes would be taken.

Therefore, we can conclude that the number of bikes is proportionate to the number of thefts.

Applied to York for Mathematics G102 MMath/M. :wink:

Graduated from the same course in 2005 :wink:

Reply 23

belafron

Wow who would have thought that a simple innocent comment would have sparked off a bitch-fest like this...

Reply 24

dsch

13

belafron

Wow who would have thought that a simple innocent comment would have sparked off a bitch-fest like this...

I wasn't bitching! I was trying to argue for the maker of the 'innocent comment'

Reply 25

belafron

Lol, and as the maker of the innocent comment i was simply remarking that it was quite humourous watching this debacle unfold!

Reply 26

eth0

1

I totally agree with rk, but you havent thought of something else.
The social effect of having a very large number of bikes in York.
Say we have n bikes in York, for very large numbers of n (n approaching infinity) bikes would lose their value, and wouldnt be something worth stealing cause they wont be neither hard to find, nor valuable. In the same context, no one would bother robbing a bank if we could grow plants that produced with 50£ bills.
or even worse, do you see anyone stealing rocks from fields/gardens? no.

hope I proved my point.

eth0

I totally agree with rk, but you havent thought of something else.
The social effect of having a very large number of bikes in York.
Say we have n bikes in York, for very large numbers of n (n approaching infinity) bikes would lose their value, and wouldnt be something worth stealing cause they wont be neither hard to find, nor valuable. In the same context, no one would bother robbing a bank if we could grow plants that produced with 50£ bills.
or even worse, do you see anyone stealing rocks from fields/gardens? no.

hope I proved my point.

You do see the occasional person stealing pebbles and stones from beaches thouhg. And sand. They take them to do their gardens up rather than paying the prices at garden centres.

Not usre if it's illegal or not (it should be as they probably someone owns the beach land) but it certainly damages the environment...imagine in everyone went to get a couple of bags of pebbles from a pebbly beach...there would be none left and it would seriously change the afect the waves and tide had on that bit of the coastline and neighbouring bits....

Reply 28

eth0

1

I think its illegal to steal pebbles from beaches, its government property, as it is illegal to 'own' a beach. all beaches are government property ;p

Reply 29

SunburnedCactus

11

Well... They probably belong to the Queen or something.

Reply 30

nettle7

Are they really? I thought people were able to have their own private beaches until gov decided that everybody would be allowed on every single stretch of coastline and so the private beach owners got mad...
Government property is our property as government represents us.

Reply 31

Dez

20

While the value of n for York is high, it is by no means approaching infinity. For n to be very large, it would imply everyone had a bike, which is clearly not the case since there have been reports of bike thefts.

paintedfolk

Are they really? I thought people were able to have their own private beaches until gov decided that everybody would be allowed on every single stretch of coastline and so the private beach owners got mad...
Government property is our property as government represents us.

Even if that is so, it doesn't mean one can take stuff from a Government owned beach 'because it belongs to them' and put it in a private garden. That would be like stealing from everyone else in the country...
..saying that I have by 500ml coke bottles filled with sand from several places around the country...hope that doesn't get me into trouble..lol

Must remember to get one filled for Scarborough when I move out here (and yes, they have to be coke bottles for some reason...)

Reply 33

eth0

1

Roger Kirk

Even if that is so, it doesn't mean one can take stuff from a Government owned beach 'because it belongs to them' and put it in a private garden. That would be like stealing from everyone else in the country...
..saying that I have by 500ml coke bottles filled with sand from several places around the country...hope that doesn't get me into trouble..lol

Must remember to get one filled for Scarborough when I move out here (and yes, they have to be coke bottles for some reason...)

/me reports RK to the Police

eth0

/me reports RK to the Police

Reply 35

dsch

13

Private beaches exist, as do private woods. It's my dream to own a wood, shoot rabbits and scare trespassers (all done wearing a flat cap.)

eth0 assumes no mobility... people can steal a bike in York and sell it in Leeds where there is a better price.

Reply 36

eth0

1

coughsyrup

Private beaches exist, as do private woods. It's my dream to own a wood, shoot rabbits and scare trespassers (all done wearing a flat cap.)

eth0 assumes no mobility... people can steal a bike in York and sell it in Leeds where there is a better price.

or better off, the owner of the bike shop you bought the bike, secretely follows you home (or hires someone to do that, but he will spend some money), waits for the right moment (ie when you are asleep) and then steals your brand new bike. The next day he sells it to another poor soul, that way making twice the money (;

I already knew about private woods, but private beaches, its insane.

Reply 37

dandan

1

If you have a decent bike; Trek, Specialised, Kona, Claud Butler etc don't bring it as gangs of chavs from Tang Hall coucil estate will nick it. If its a cheap one, bring it but buy a decent lock.

Cycling on campus

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