La Prueba de la Bicicleta

Reading the never-ending barrage of articles in the newspapers here, one would think that Buenos Aires is a hot bed of crime (robberies, pickpocketing, etc.) Here, the lack (or perceived lack) of security is known as "la inseguridad." The issue of increasing street crime is often debated, however. Personally, I have only witnessed two purse thefts and, scarily enough, a gun robbery in Plaza San Martin in broad daylight (on a Sunday, when police presence is dramatically reduced).

A group of portenos recently decided to test "la inseguridad" and created La Prueba de la Bicicleta (the bicycle test). This group left bikes unlocked in certain neighborhoods throughout Buenos Aires and set up a video camera to see how long it would take for the bikes to be stolen.

The results were actually pretty fascinating. In the supposedly rougher neighborhoods, like La Boca, the bikes took far longer to be stolen than in the more upscale areas. In fact, the shortest time was in the upper middle class Barrio Norte neighborhood (three minutes), while a bike left in La Boca took three hours to be stolen.

The organizers of La Prueba are looking to expand this study beyond Buenos Aires and beyond Argentina, but nothing has yet to materialize. Many of the La Prueba thefts have been posted on You Tube, Facebook, and MySpace, and some of the daily newspapers and TV stations have reported on this study.

Here are some links that feature some of the thefts, as caught by the hidden video cameras. Some are pretty funny and the soundtrack that accompanies it is hilarious:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3