Perfect Gate RFID bike parking in Japan: not bad!

We were a little skeptical last year when we heard some company called Perfect Gate Ltd. would be rolling out an RFID-based system for the locking of bikes—not to mention the not a chance in hell attitude we got from our friends big on biking. But hey, what do you know? The Maruyoshi Cycle bike parking lot in Osaka (yeah, they have those over there) has reportedly cut theft from one bike monthly to zero for over a year now by implementing the system, which consists of one embedded tag in the front wheel of the user's bike, and a counterpart RFID tag that links the owner to the property and grants access to the lot.

[Caz @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

I love a country where one bike theft a month is considered enough of a threat to engage in high-tech crime-fighting! :)

(...or Japan is just ready to engage in just anything high-tech anyway, which is still ok with me!)

[Jason @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

And here I was removing my rear brake, gears, shifters, and derailers to make my city bike the least attractive to theives. All I needed was an expensive RFID tag and monthly parking pass... I still think the bike tree is the best. >> http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/03/bike_tree_locke_1.php

[Pat @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

I guess it kinda makes sense if your form of transportation is your bike? I mean just think of how much money people spend on their cars as their form of transportation? Wouldn't this be cheaper?

Hey I never knew bikes grew on trees!

[TIMMAH! @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Hmmm BikeTree... kinda like the anti-squirrel systems you see for birdfeeders. What prevents the thieves from shimming up the trees to get at the goodies though? (Maybe grease the poles of electrify them?)

[eli @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

The people likely to use this are completely different than American bike enthusiasts. They're businessmen and school kids who ride to the train station and then leave their bikes in a lot with hundreds of other identical black three-speeds (with baskets). Finding your bike and getting it out at the end of the day can be a real bitch.

[Timmah! @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

and we call ourselves a developed country?

[OddManOut @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Cracks me up. They managed to reduce their whopping 1 bike per month stolen rate.

When I was in Japan, my new roomate (another American) was showing me around town when I first arrived (in a smallish town called Okazaki near Nagoya. not in or near Tokyo). We were riding bikes. We stopped outside the 'Jusco' mall and my roomie flicked the little spoke lock, set his kickstand and headed for the door. I figured "when in rome...' so I followed suit, but I asked him if he actually thought our bikes would be safe. He pointed out that that is how everyone 'secures' their bike and said it would be fine and how would anybody steal it anyway, they couldn't ride off on it...

I of course pointed out that while that was true, there was nothing preventing someone from driving up with a truck , throwing 5 - 10 'locked' bikes in the back and driving off to saw the locks at their leisure in complete seclusion. He said he'd never thought of it that way (surprising since my roomy was not a local, he was from the mean streets of North Carolina).

When I postulated this theory to the natives they were even more appaled and incredulous that I would even think of such a thing...

What is wrong with americans that they gotta STEAL/DEFACE everything ?

Bah...maybe I'm just upset and venting cause my car was stolen 2 days ago and used in a hit and run...

C'mon september...

[Brad Kent @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

I spent a week riding a bike around in Japan.
Everybody basically rides the same $55 commodity bike. If a bike gets stollen it's probably because someone misplaced theirs in the heaps of bicycle sameness.

[Joe the Phish @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Erm, Southampton university (UK) has had almost this for a while. Their normal university ID cards have radio chips in them, and their bike sheds are locked by them, and you can only gain access to certain bike sheds. Okay, so you have to hold your wallet up to the receiver rather than just walking in, but still...

[Ali Robertson @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

I Think it's a fantastic idea! If people want to secure their expensive bikes (i.e. not generic ones), then there's no better place to do it than this! So it probably means that this parking lot just moved up in the market.