Now Paris offers public use bicycles.

[cyclezealot]

I look forward to our next trip to Paris. Do you all like the looks of these utility bikes?
Far cheaper than a taxi and less hassle than the subway. ? Paris- go green.
Think 10,600 bikes enough? WOnder how many gears, Paris does have some pretty steep climbs in some quarters. Think other EU cities to go Green. Copenhagen, Stockholm with this velo program. photo show provided via the news link.
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The French didn’t invent the wheel, but with their latest urban project they’re reinventing how it’ll be used in their beloved capital. On July 15, Mayor Bertrand Delanoë and other green-minded Parisians were on hand at the launching of the “Velib’ ” program, which makes some 10,600 public-use bicycles available at 750 stations throughout the world’s most visited city.

Delanoë, once the head of Paris’ Socialist Party, started his campaign to cut down on traffic congestion when he ran for office in 2001. Since then, the city has become less user-friendly for car owners and more so for people using buses and bicycles: Free parking lots have become a thing of the past, parking tickets have gone up in price, and many two-way streets have been whittled down to one-way routes. Also, car lanes have been sacrificed throughout the city to make room for more bike traffic and to widen bus lanes. Around March of this year, the push to set up the program began in earnest. By January 2008 the city plans to double the number of bikes and stations.

The hope of the Velib’ initiative—the name is a combination of the French words velo (bike) and liberté (liberty)—is to make Paris greener and to expand bicycle culture. With Sunday’s Velib launch (a good day for the event, just after Bastille Day and right at the height of Tour de France fever), Paris joins other pedal-pushing European cities like Brussels, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Vienna, all of which have implemented similar programs. Bicycle traffic is already on the rise, and Paris now boasts 230 miles of bike lanes throughout the city. According to a Velib’ official, a single card allows users to both rent bicycles (with a range of subscription and pricing options) and ride public transportation. The three-speed touring bikes can be left at any of the bicycle stations in Paris. Because the program fosters brief rides, of less than half an hour, the bikes are expected to be in heavy rotation

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/20070715_vive_la_velorution/

[Roody]

This is fantastic. I hope these ideas spread across the continent with the speed of Napoleon's armies. Of course the US will reject the plans because they're French! :rolleyes:


The three-speed touring bikes can be left at any of the bicycle stations in Paris. Because the program fosters brief rides, of less than half an hour, the bikes are expected to be in heavy rotation.


They tried a program like this at Michigan State University years ago and it failed. IIRC, the costs were much higher than anticipated. I think a lot of the free bikes ended up in the Red Cedar River. But I know similar programs have worked in other locations.


many two-way streets have been whittled down to one-way routes.


This surprises me. I usually think of two-way streets as bike-friendly and one-ways as car-friendly.


The hope of the Velib’ initiative ... is to make Paris greener and to expand bicycle culture.


Another surprise. It sometimes seems like North American cities are trying to squash bike culture!

Thanks for posting this, cyclezealot. It's nice to know that another great city is joining the ranks of Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Bogota! :)

[redtires]

Yup, Boulder Co. did the same thing something like 10 years ago or so. Green bikes and everything. It started out ok, but transients and college students kept stealing the bikes and hiding them for continuous personal use.

[wahoonc]

I seem to recall there was an issue in the Netherlands too. The bikes were built with non standard parts and painted some awful color. A lot of them ended up thrown in the canals when the lowlifes that stole them figured out they couldn't sell them...

Aaron:)

[cyclezealot]

Roody. Seems like London is about to follow suit , too.

[everichon]

I think that with this program in Paris there are strong financial disincentives to throwing a bike into the Seine, as opposed to the large number of failed free-bike programs.

[donnamb]

I think that with this program in Paris there are strong financial disincentives to throwing a bike into the Seine, as opposed to the large number of failed free-bike programs.
Yes, indeed. These are heavy bikes (50 lbs) that are in racks sort of like the ones in airports where they have to be released with a payment of some sort. Then when they're out, they have locks for them, and people are expected to use them. Each city that has programs like these employs a variety of financial penalties for a renter who doesn't return a bike. They're usually using a debit or credit card for these transactions, and so they can take more money from renter if the bike evaporates before it is put back.

[becnal]

Of course the US will reject the plans because they're French! :rolleyes:

Who says? We've had this system in Germany for years now.

[lima_bean]

This surprises me. I usually think of two-way streets as bike-friendly and one-ways as car-friendly.

Hmm, I consider the opposite to be true. One-way streets offer much more room for easy passing since there are often many more lanes heading in the same direction. Also you avoid that problem of the vulnerable cyclist sitting dead in the middle of the street stopped waiting to make the left turn, and the problem of left turners rushing through a gap and misjudging the speed of an oncoming cyclist.

I always try to plan my cycling routes with a bias towards one way streets.



Austin, TX had community bikes for a while, but eventually couldnt keep up with replacing them faster than they were stolen.

Who says? We've had this system in Germany for years now.

In the US right now there is a lot of strong Anti-French feelings being propagated by the media and politicians. It is not uncommon for something to be dismissed simply because it is French.

[velomedieval]

We had a "Yellow Bike" program here in southern Indiana a few years ago (based on a Dutch model) that lasted less than a summer because people stole all the bikes or just vandalized them to the point where it wasn't financially possible to keep the project going (or to educate people on how not to be world class tools).

As for the anti-French sentiment, there is a comment in one of the linked stories in the OP's truthdig article that has already pegged the Velib project as the evil work of Democrats. I guess the French will just have to get in line for their share of the hate.:lol:

I really hope these kinds of projects take off. It's a great way for people to try out running errands and commuting by bike without committing to buying a bike. Hopefully, enough people will like it enough to actually buy their own bike and really embrace urban bike culture.