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Bicycle Utopia: Free Bikes in Paris!
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Free city bikes have been a utopian dream for a long time now. I'm not sure where it started, but I recall that about 20 years ago some European city decided to buy a bunch of bikes, paint them yellow, and then let people use them at their convenience (readers, any idea where this first happened???).
The idea was that one could step out of a store, grab the first yellow bike they found, ride it to their next destination, and then leave it there for whoever needs it next.
Naturally people began stealing the bikes and painting them different colors, or simply locking them up so that others couldn't use them. Bicycle Utopia was a failure.
Over the years a handful of other cities have tried the same system with various degrees of success.
This July, Paris is launching their own version. Called Vélib', the Parisian version will drop 20,000 red-painted bikes onto the city streets for locals and tourists alike to peddle around to their heart's content.
The program is based upon a smaller version in the city of Lyon which has now been operating successfully for two years. In anticipation of the Parisian version, Benji Lanyado, writing for the Guardian, recently took the Lyon system for a test drive.
Unlike the original program in which the bikes were just dropped off anywhere, the Lyon system requires that riders insert a credit card into a special bike rack in order to release one of the bikes. If it is never returned, the user is charged €150. If the bike is placed back into another special rack anywhere in the city within half an hour, there is no charge. Every hour after that costs €1.
What a great system!
Lanyado spent a fine day popping from one destination to another, enjoying the three-speed bicycles and all the wonderful sites that Lyon has to offer. I can't wait until this arrives in Paris!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
benji May 22nd 2007 3:26PM
it truly was a great day, i'm glad you liked the piece. One thing i would add to what i wrote is this-
Lyon's infrastructure was ready for the system, there are bikelanes everywhere, and the regeneration of the banks of the Rhone has been specifically moulded to accommodate lanes. As far as i know, Paris is not a bike-laned system in the way that Lyon, Amsterdam and Copenhagen are.
but perhaps it will be a chicken and egg thing- Lyon is continually adapting for the bikes, and for the system to work properly in Paris they will have to also. either way, it will be quite a change!
ourman May 22nd 2007 4:17PM
Love it. Great idea.
Just thinking. Imagine amongst all that traffic, your bike crashes - horrifically mangling the bike as the ambulance scoops you up. Will you be incurring $1 an hour as you continue to recuperate in your hospital bed.
Sorry, that's just me being bleak. Great post. Fabulous idea. Sooner or later someone had to make the old bike idea work. I look forward to seeing it elsewhere.
I've just bought my bike here in Nicaragua. Pedaling ten yards reduces me to a big ball of sweat. Rehydrating takes several days.
Frogmarch May 25th 2007 12:08PM
I live in Lyon and use Velo'V all the time--commuting to work on nice days, running out to the butcher shop, taking a spin around the park, whatever. It's particularly useful on days when the Metro is on strike or not running (of course, then the bikes become scarce and you may have to wait a few minutes at the rack for someone to return one).
Something Benji's piece didn't mention is that there is also a long-term option that allows residents to simply carry a Velo'V card around rather than messing with a credit card. Swipe your card, punch your PIN, and you're off.
There are a few factors that have led to the success of the program in Lyon that may not be translatable to other cities (such as Paris):
1) Lyon is geographically very compact;
2) Lyon is essentially flat, except for two areas atop steep hills;
3) The local government is 100% behind the plan, building plenty of bike lanes, alloting space for rack stations, and so forth. The stations have to be everywhere for this to be a worthwhile option for people...a city doing it half-assed will likely find it failing.
Neil May 25th 2007 12:09PM
Awesome, thanks for the additional information, Frogmarch. Sounds like a great gig
DENIS Dec 10th 2007 12:20PM
The first city that tried that system was Amsterdam in the 60s. In that time some members of the PROVO (an anarchic political movement) had made it to the City Council and had succeeded in having this system installed. They dropped white bikes (you're wrong when saying they were yellow) in the streets of the city for everybody to use but it soon appeared that the bikes disappeared (often thrown into teh canals) or were vandalized. It's a pity it was a failure but it paved the way for today's systems.
A. Denis