Yes? For all practical purposes? I have never known anyone who has had a car stolen. I know several who have had their bike(s) stolen, often repeatedly.
Looking at the statistics[1], I see that in my country (Australia) there is a less than 1% chance of your car being stolen in any recent year. That seems to be pretty low, a nuisance yes but not all that bad. And that's even though cars are much more valuable than bikes - and very few people use any sort of aftermarket lock with their car.
I would say the law has dealt pretty effectively with car theft and I see no reason it could not be adapted to include bikes, too.
Car theft has been largely eradicated. There are some European organized crime groups that switch out the PCM on cars where this is possible, but the days of teenagers hot-wiring cars has long since been over. If you were to call the police and say your car has been stolen, they will tell you to call your bank and find out why your car was repo'd.
enko|15 years ago
Looking at the statistics[1], I see that in my country (Australia) there is a less than 1% chance of your car being stolen in any recent year. That seems to be pretty low, a nuisance yes but not all that bad. And that's even though cars are much more valuable than bikes - and very few people use any sort of aftermarket lock with their car.
I would say the law has dealt pretty effectively with car theft and I see no reason it could not be adapted to include bikes, too.
[1] http://ncars.on.net/docs/quick/aus_summary_qtr.pdf
jcampbell1|15 years ago
e40|15 years ago
Also, I remember seeing a 60 minutes (or some show) on south american cities where a high percentage of the cars on the road were stolen from the US.