Imagine you’ve just finished a long day of classes.
You’re tired, you want to get home so you can eat and get started on some reading, or maybe just veg out and watch some TV.
Now imagine that when you approach the bike rack where your bike should be, your ride is nowhere to be found. You’re still tired, but now you’re pissed off and wondering, “Why me?”
Tonight, two Portland State students, Zach Gough and Erin Charpentier, will hold a workshop to address bike theft and how students can inform themselves and others about the problem.
Gough and Charpentier explained that the first half of the workshop will include an open-mic storytelling session around the theme of bike theft.
The second half will be a participatory launch of a visual campaign that aims to bring visibility to bike theft. Participants will join the pair as they mark nearby spots where bike theft has occurred with flags.
The inspiration for the project came from the theft of Gough’s bike while he was at a meeting in the Museum of Contemporary Craft, which led to the two collaborating to bring awareness to the issue.
Their research led to a measure of bike theft’s shocking prevalence.
While speaking to an employee at the PSU Bike Hub, the two learned that only 15 percent of bike thefts are reported. People don’t report their bikes stolen for many reasons; sometimes the bike isn’t very valuable, or the theft victim is not the original owner. The visual campaign will give people a way to communicate that their bike was stolen.
The event will be held at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, located at 724 NW Davis St., and will run from 6:30–8 p.m. The event is free to all and is part of a larger series of workshops and programs at the museum called CounterCraft, which will be in residence until June 1. Additionally, PSU students and faculty will be given free admission to the museum during CounterCraft’s residency.