“We call that care be taken of your iron horse and to use the possibility of registering it in the Road Traffic Safety Directorate database, thereby making it easier if the bicycle is stolen, so that it can be identified in cases where it is found,” said Juris Jančevskis, head of the VP Traffic Safety Board.
Registration is a relatively easy process.
“It's possible to do this on the E-CSDD Internet site and mobile app, and in customer service centers, by pointing out the bike brand, model, adding a picture where it is fully seen, including the frame number,” said CSDD spokeswoman Ieva Bērziņa.
The cost of registering a bicycle is around €3, plus the cost for a sticker.
“We recommend that people take the velo sticker. It is a visual acknowledgment that a bicycle has been registered. According to the information at our disposal, when a thief chooses a bicycle […], they better take the one which doesn't have a sticker," Ieva Bērziņa said.
Several thousand bicycles are registered in Latvia every year. There are almost 60,000 bicycles currently on the register.
If you want to insure your vehicle, insurers will first require to register the bicycle.