Bicycle theft in Seattle? (Vancouver, Pacific: apartment, employment, neighborhoods)

[SitoUK]

Has anyone got any information or numbers on bicycle theft in Seattle? Can you usually leave your bike chained to a lamp post or railing somewhere or is that something that is not recommended?

I would just like to get an idea. I am currently living in London but will be moving to Seattle in October. Here in London I don't have a car and would very much like to avoid having one in Seattle as well. In London I use my bike to go to work every day but I can store the bike safely in the office, so there's no problem. However, I never leave my bike outside somewhere for more than a brief period. I think last year in London 18000 bikes were stolen and if you have a nice bike and leave it outside on a regular basis sooner or later it will be gone. So if I go somewhere where I can't securely park my bike I go by bus or tube or walk if possible.

In Seattle the public transport system seems ok but nowhere near as comprehensive as in London, so ideally I'd like to use my bike for more trips, for example when going shopping or go for a drink in the evening but of course I'd have to lock my bike somewhere to do that. Is that a good thing to do in Seattle? Any advice is welcome ;-)

Cheers

Lars

P.S. If I find a place to live that has enough storage space I am thinking about getting a cheap 2nd hand bike to go shopping etc. and use my nice bike to commute only. But that will entirely depend on the dimensions of our future accomodation. In London I sadly don't have any space for a 2nd bike or at least I cannot convince my wife to give up some more lounge space for it ;-)

I dont think its recommended to that with a bike at night, but it seems fine during the day, if you chain it somewhere for a brief period of time. Seattle has some problems with car theft so I assume it might have some problems with bike theft. I didnt know London had a bike theft problem.


Wow! From London to Seattle! Interesting.
I went from New York City to Seattle, so it sort of is similar in some ways as going from London to Seattle.

How do Londoners feel about Seattle(for the ones that know it exists lol) ? I know this one person from London that likes Seattle a lot. Seattle also has bands like Bloc Party and Coldplay come here(Bloc Party and Coldplay are from London, I think). Also the music group Bonobo from Brighton, England had a concert in Seattle recently. Bloc Party had a concert in Seattle a week ago. London's music scene seems so awesome, as well as England's music scene in general. Seattle has a great music scene too(Modest Mouse, Eddie Vedder, The Postal Service, Blue Scholars, Antione Bell, Assemblage 23 other music groups too) . From what I know about New York City's music scene, it seems kind of overrated, or maybe I just dont know about NYC's music scene that well.

I lived in Seattle since February 2010. I like a lot of things about both New York City and Seattle. I have enjoyed my move to Seattle so far. I know both of those cities well at this point. For the USA, my favorite cities in it are New York City, Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco.
I like London a lot from what I know about it and would like to visit it one day!

I am assuming you are wanting to try out a place very different from London but still similar to London in some ways at the same time, such as some of my reasons for going from New York City to Seattle. Or are there different reasons for your move to Seattle?

Which neighborhood are you going to live in Seattle? Do you want some recommendations for some cool places in Seattle, things to do, events, and things about it?

Did you visit Seattle before?

Seattle's public transportation is ok. I dont have my license yet or a car and it has been pretty easy to get around here by public transportation. However, I cant wait until I get my license and have a car! I want to go on trips to all the nature places the Pacific Northwest has to offer and to be able to go to Vancouver, Canada, and Portland, Oregon for some day/weekend trips.

Even if I was still in New York City, I would still want my driver's license and a car, though.


Good luck on the move!

[SitoUK]

Hey, thanks for your reply

Originally Posted by NaturalUrbanBalence

Wow! From London to Seattle! Interesting.
I went from New York City to Seattle, so it sort of is similar in some ways as going from London to Seattle.

I think that's probably true. NYC are kind of similar in terms of size, diversity, cultural things on offer etc...they're probably very different in many other respects as well

Originally Posted by NaturalUrbanBalence

How do Londoners feel about Seattle? I know this one person from London that likes Seattle a lot. Seattle also has bands like Bloc Party and Coldplay come here(Bloc Party and Coldplay are from London, I think).

Well, I am not sure if Londoner's have too many views about Seattle, I did not know a lot about it to be honest (apart form the Grunge thing) before I went for a visit. These two bands are certainly British, not entirely sure if they're from London. Coldplay are rubbish though

Originally Posted by NaturalUrbanBalence

I am assuming you are wanting to try out a place very different from London but still similar to London in some ways at the same time, such as some of my reasons for going from New York City to Seattle. Or are there different reasons for your move to Seattle?

The main reason to come to Seattle is my employers offering me to go. So I thought it's a great opportunity to see something new. I've been in London for 9 years or so, I am originally German but I've also lived in Spain, so I am always keen on seeing new places. I've never been to US for a longer period, so this was an opportunity too good to reject.

On the other hand I've got some concerns as well. I really like living in London. It's been a major city since Roman times and every stone you touch, every piece of land you stand on has some history. I am very interested in that sort of stuff and I spend a lot of time reading about London or going to museums. I also like the art museums, theatres and all the crazy underground cultural stuff that's on offer here and make much use of it. I don't think I've ever been bored since I live in London, way too many things to do and explore. And as the city changes so quickly you absolutely never run out of new things to try.

Of course Seattle will offer most of that to a certain degree but the City is much smaller and I am a bit worried that it might get a little boring after a while but then there's all the outdoors to explore as well etc ;-)

Originally Posted by NaturalUrbanBalence

I dont think its recommended to that with a bike at night, but it seems fine during the day, if you chain it somewhere for a brief period of time. Seattle has some problems with car theft so I assume it might have some problems with bike theft. I didnt know London had a bike theft problem.

Well, I think most larger Cities where some cycling is going on have a bike theft problem. It's too easy to steal them and the police just don't care, they've almost given up, there's too many cases. The chances to get your bike back hen it's stolen are slim and none.

Originally Posted by NaturalUrbanBalence

Which neighborhood are you going to live in Seattle? Do you want some recommendations for some cool places in Seattle, things to do, and things about it?

Well, we had 5 days in Seattle earlier this year and afterwards sort of settled on living in Capitol Hill. It doesn not seem as sterile as downtown and, as far as that's possible in Seattle, comes close to an urban environment as I know it from London. I just want to live somwhere where I can step out of my flat and have a few restaurants, bars and corner shops to choose from without having to drive or cycle anywhere. Capitol Hill seems good in that respect. What other areas would you recommend?

Originally Posted by NaturalUrbanBalence

Seattle's public transportation is ok. I dont have my license yet or a car and it has been pretty easy to get around here by public transportation. However, I cant wait until I get my license and have a car! I want to go on trips to all the nature places the Pacific Northwest has to offer and to be able to go to Vancouver, Canada, and Portland, Oregon for some day/weekend trips.


Even if I was still in New York City, I would still want my driver's license and a car, though.

Do you have your driver's license?

Good luck on the move!

Thanks! I have a drivers license but I don't like driving very much and in London driving is a real pain. We've got the congestion charge and there's nowhere to park. Public transport is almost always quicker, at least in the more central zones. I am a Zip Car member here and use it from time to time. This is pretty much ideal and I'll do the same thing in Seattle. And maybe hire a car for weekend trips to which I am very much looking forward to ;-)

And yes, if you like NYC, you should definitely try and spend some time in London, I certainly love the place. And also yes, any recommendation on Seattle things to do are more than welcome ;-)

Thanks for the reply back! Sorry this is long! It wont take long to read and respond back.


Bloc Party and Coldplay are based in the London area, from what I remember. Bonobo is from Brighton England. All of these music groups had concerts in Seattle. I think they all liked Seattle because I think they had concerts in Seattle more than once. If they liked Seattle (as well as some other British people and Londoners), Im sure you can like Seattle too!
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That’s interesting that the company you work for in London has some connections to Seattle. What type of employment do you work for?
I think it is a good idea that you will try someplace else out. What was your experience with Spain and Germany?
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I Iiked living in New York City and finding out local things about it, such as how you feel about London. They do have a lot of history and things like that, but technically every place in the world has a lot of history.

One of my family members is a world history teacher in New York City. She likes New York City’s local history but she feels like many places in the world have a lot of history and things like that to get to know.
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Seattle will offer “underground cultural stuff”, art museums/ art events, theatre and things like that. It sounds like we are into similar city things!

So what if Seattle is smaller than London or NYC? Seattle and the Pacific Northwest still offers a lot of things to do, a lot of things to explore , and I haven’t been bored since I lived here in February 2010(5-6 months).

Technically someone can be excited/having fun or being bored wherever they live in the world. Personally, I like to try to appreciate many different places in the world and the positives and negatives about each place. Usually, I don’t like to compare places that much. I have friends that are from all types of places.

I think someone can live in a place like Seattle and never run out of things to do like New York City and London, even though I might be “smaller.”
Its very impressive that Seattle can offer so much while it has a population of 600,000 compared to 7-8 million in NYC and London.
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Seattle is rated one of the most fun cities in the United States of America and I agree with that survey.

Let me name some examples for things to do in Seattle(And this is just some of many possibilities).:

This June-September Seattle had the Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle true independent film festival, an environmental festival, a jazz festival, a huge local arts festival, and in September will have 2 music festivals: Seattle Bumbershoot and Decibel electronic music festival.

I have been to at least 25 restaurants in Seattle I liked a lot, and at least 25 great independent coffee/places I been to a lot. I love hanging out in Downtown, Capital Hill, West Seatle, University District, and some other neighborhoods in Seattle.

Seattle is nearby Vancouver, Canada and Portland, Oregon which are other great cities. There are so many day trip/weekend trip possibilities from Seattle, with those city options and nature/outdoor options.

I don’t think you will be bored here. And you picked a great neighborhood in Seattle to live in (Capital Hill.)

Why do you think Seattle’s downtown is sterile? I really don’t think it is.
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I love NYC, but I love Seattle too and think they are both great places for a lot of reasons. Im sure I feel the same way about London by what I know about it! Im so glad I got to know New York City and Seattle so well.

I know a lot of New Yorkers that love Seattle, including my family members that visited. At first they didn’t like it, but once they got to know Seattle better, they realize how great it is and started to love it.
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I would love to study abroad for college in London or Paris for a semester-a year within a few years. I think Im leaning towards London instead of Paris, because I dont know French. I saw some pictures of London and Paris and they sort of look similar to each other in some ways! (Oxford circus in London vs. Rue de Rivoli in Paris look extremely similar.) How do you feel about London compared to Paris? Both of those cities seem so closeby to each other(3 hours or less away). They seem similar to each other in a lot of ways, while still being very different from each other.
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Do you want me to send you a long list of some things you can do for fun in Seattle and some pictures of Seattle/PCNW? It seems like we have very similar tastes and city lifestyle preferences.

Maybe in return you can send me a long list of places in London to see once I visit London! I would like that.

[SitoUK]

ok, thanks again, loads of stuff to do in Seattle it seems, bring it on!

There's shedloads of stuff to do in London. If you go there I recommend you work your way through the Lonely Planet guide book...I am doing that myself at the moment and even after almost 9 years here I am surprised how many things I have not seen or not even heard of...and the rest you pick up along the way, things are changing so quickly, so the theatre company or club which are the coolest things in town this week might not exist anymore the next one...but if you're interested in the history of the City I strongly recommend the Museum of London and the Museum of London Docklands. They're a great starting point to get a good idea about London history...

But back to the original topic of this thread...any more opinions on the Seattle bicycle situation? Or are there not any cyclists in this forum?

[Inkpoe]

Seattle is very into bikes. We have many many parks which is perfect for bike riding. Our DT streets do have a bicycle lanes, and Seattle DT is going to spend 15K (per intersection) modifying the bicycle lanes to make it more safer for cyclists. Drivers here to mind the cyclists. As for theft, of course, always be responsible and get a GREAT lock. They generally will have an area where you can "park" your bike, just use the lock on those railings. I *think* that they would rather that you NOT use lamp post as that could create a hazard and/or block the flow of traffic. Our buses and light rail have a bike rack which will make it easier for you.

Back in the 90s, there were more bikes going through Seattle DT as the companies there used people riding on bikes as a means of mail transportation. Not so much now... you'll see more people using their bikes to get to work. So you wouldn't be an oddity.

[Robineli]

My bf and I both ride bikes. Mine was stolen from a secure garage. His bike, sitting right next to mine, was not. Wrong lock.

BTW, if it hasn't been mentioned before, you'll need a helmet here (it's the law).

[SitoUK]

Thanks for your replies. Well, it seems, in this respect Seattle is like most places on earth, bikes get stolen ;-) I really hope we find an apartment with basement, so I've got the space to get a cheap 2nd bike for trips to the pub ;-)

And thanks for the helmet advice, I am always wearing a helmet, anything else would be madness in urban traffic, so I am already used to that. Although I presume in Seattle your waterproofs are almost more important ;-)