From July until September, 240 bikes were stolen on the system—90 more than for the same time in 2007.

Bay Area Rapid Transit spokesman Lynton Johnson says one reason for the sharp increase in thefts is due to the increased number of people riding bikes to and from BART. In response, he says that BART police are trying to stop the thieves by placing decoy bikes out with undercover officers.

“We’ve had a big outreach to the BART community to report thefts more because what we’re trying to do is figure out ways to go undercover and target the thieves. So if we can find out where they’re being stolen from, than we can find out where to deploy our new unit which is going out undercover and looking for thieves.”

KCBS’ Bob Melrose reports

Johnson says that many of the BART stations now have new electronic bike lockers which he says are much safer than trying to tie your bike to a post.

The system is also reporting a sharp increase in the number of personal electronic devices stolen, such as iPods and laptops.

(cfu)