The eyes have it: Bike thieves hate an audience

Bicycle thieves don't like an audience - even if the eyes staring at them aren't real. Research by Newcastle University found cycle theft can be significantly reduced by placing large photos of eyes above bike racks.

The two-year experiment on campus grounds resulted in a reduction in theft of 62%. In areas of the university grounds without the posters, bike theft soared by 63%, suggesting the crime had been displaced to other locations, rather than eliminated.

A previous study in 2006 saw the same researchers look at the effect of 'eye posters' on contributions to an honesty box in a tea room. They found people put nearly three times more money in the box when confronted by the eyes compared to a poster showing flowers.

We were so impressed by this simple way of encouraging cooperative behaviour that we wondered whether it might help tackle dangerous parking outside schools. The idea of cardboard cut-out police officers isn't new, but we added a few extra features to ours.

Our pop-up traffic policeman prototype comprises a cardboard cutout and an A-board, which features a CCTV camera and a bank of flashing blue LED lights. Police forces may not have the budgets or will to prevent dangerous and illegal parking outside schools, but thanks to our contraption, at least we can give the impression they do.

When we installed it outside a local school, it might not have completely eliminated anti-social behaviour but it got the thumbs up from parents who walk their kids to school and sparked interesting conversations with those who don't.

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