DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado residents are known for their love of the outdoors and active lifestyle. It should come as no surprise to see plenty of cyclists and bikes on the streets and trails around the state.
What might be a surprise is how many of those bikes get stolen.
A study by the cyclist training app, JOIN, analyzed the number of stolen bikes per state in the FBI database and the estimated value of the bikes stolen, which was converted into categories like median value, total value and average value.
“A stolen bike is more than just a stolen asset — it’s the loss of the ability to cycle, to commute, and to train. The impacts can last for years due to the cost of replacing a stolen bike,” said JOIN in the study.
The study found that Colorado is the state with the third-highest rate of bike thefts per capita, and consistently ranked as No. 1 for estimated value stolen.
The top 10 states with the most bike thefts include:
StateBike theftsTotal valueAverageMedianMedian totalCalifornia21,339$31,548132$1,478.43$700.00$14,937,300Texas12,261$10,990,057$896.34$300.00$3,678,300Colorado7,433$14,397,131$1,936.92$800.00$5,946,400Florida6,790$4,924,208$725.21$350.00$2,376,500New York6,166$5,638,934$915.11$600.00$3,699,600Washington6,104$8,729,524$1,430.13$600.00$3,662,400Oregon5,449$7,857,959$1,442.09$670.00$3,650,830Minnesota4,930$4,750,065$963.50$500.00$2,465,000Illinois4,530$2,241,943$494.91$300.00$1,359,000Massachusetts4,297$3,164,366$841.14$500.00$2,148,500(Credit JOIN)
The total amount of bike thefts in Colorado aligns in descending order, but if you look at the states ranked on either side of Colorado in second and fourth — one figure that may jump off the page is the value of the bikes stolen.
Texas had 4,828 more bikes stolen, but the valuation of those bikes is still significantly less than lower-ranking Colorado. As for Florida, the state had 643 fewer bikes stolen, but only reached approximately one-third of the value of the bikes stolen in Colorado.
