Barcelona looks to reduce bicycle robberies

A report from the Bicycle Club of Catalonia (BACC) and researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona has analyzed rising bicycle thefts in the Catalan capital, which discourage many people from using their bike on a daily basis.

The study admits that reliable data is lacking, but proposes two priority measures: creating more secure parking lots and establishing a unified registry of bicycles to be able to recover them once they are stolen.

In fact, they point out that many thefts that are not reported because if the owner does not have a photo or frame number listed, they do not trust the police to be able to find it.

With the help of the Metropolitan Area of ​​Barcelona, ​​the Mossos d'Esquadra, the Guàrdia Urbana and bicycle manufacturers, the report has delved deeper into what is known about bike thefts.

In 2024, there were a total of 921 reports of thefts, while that rose to 1,046 in 2025, with most taking place in the districts of Eixample, Ciutat Vella, Gràcia, and Sant Martí.

The report concluded that more than half of the thefts are not reported, and that of the reports submitted, a good part do not provide the chassis number or photographs.

For this reason, the report proposes unifying all registers, which the DGT has proposed to do in the short term.

One common problem is that many users are unaware of these registers, although they are easy to use.

Another proposal is to install GPS on some "bait" bicycles to see if they are stolen and to which areas they are moved, in order to predict future thefts.

The use of parking spaces has also been studied. In 2022, the city of Barcelona had nearly 40,000 Sheffield racks on the street. More than 60% were in the central districts, but only 10% were fully used.

The study proposes more closed parking spaces because they are safer, especially near work centers and transport nodes.

The coordinator of the study, Clementine Suraud, explained that around 20% of victims of bicycle theft stop using them to move around regularly.