Try this at home. Mariano Pasik, an Argentine publicist in Buenos Aires, has attempted to measure crime in his city is by leaving bicycles unlocked. He films the spot to see how long it takes before they are stolen. Reuters has the story:

“What you see on the videos is that they aren’t professional thieves, they aren’t people who went out to rob. They are people who ran into temptation and decided to commit a crime, they become thieves at the moment they take the bike,” he said.

He said he is also trying to show that the media fascination with crime, in places like Buenos Aires where armed robberies are rampant, is part of the problem.

“The popular fantasy is that the bike will be stolen in seconds, and it isn’t quite like that,” Pasik said.

In the latest video posted, a bike lasted an hour without being stolen in the unsavory Constitucion neighborhood. But on the upscale shopping street of Santa Fe, a bike lasted a few short minutes before it was stolen.

A neighborhood “passes” the bicycle test when an hour passes or when the filmer gets tired or runs out of batteries.

Nice methodology. If the observer stops for a cup of coffee, the neighborhood is safe.

“You see the person thinking and thinking and thinking, coming and going. Sometimes they talk by phone. They go away. They come back. It’s more about an internal dilemma between good and bad, than about the bicycle itself,” Pasik said.

Watching for signs of casing is always a good idea in security.

So far in the Bicycle Test, no woman has stolen a bike.

Maybe he should change the color of the bicycle.