Blog post 'Véliberation!'
Véliberation!
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The Christian Science Monitor recently ran an article detailing the upcoming Vélib program in Paris. Starting July 15th, people will be able to rent out bicycles and use them throughout the entire city as an alternative mode of transportation. According to them, roughly 1,400 stations will be available throughout the city with more to come as demand increases and time passes. It’s modeled after the system currently in place in Lyon, France. Riders are not charged for the first thirty minutes of use, but then it increases by a euro. For example if you have it for 35 minutes, you get charged for 1€ (1h20 is 3€). It’s relatively simple on a progressive scale. There are two options available for registering to the system; short term and a yearlong subscription. Both require a backup of 150€ linked to a bank account. The short term runs either one day (1€) or a week (5€) that would be perfect for short trips in the city. However only those who have the following cards can use the system: AMEX or JCB, Ticket Vélib or Passe Navigo, or any banking card associated to GIE or EMV. The bikes are all outfitted with the necessary reflectors and lights for night travel and to be easily visible in the city streets (although bike helmets are rarely if ever seen in France). Also equipped to the bikes are locks and a front basket, all in all the same as those in Lyon. Although baskets on bikes aren’t in vogue here in America, they do serve a great purpose. While walking the streets of Lyon, you occasionally see girlfriends riding balanced on the front with boyfriends biking. It’s one of those “Oh, c’est France” things. After seeing the system in Lyon while studying there, I can give a few insights into what I saw. I didn’t have a subscription because doing so would require me to open up a Carte Bancaire account with a French bank, but Vélo’v is Lyon. The program is heavily successful with students but also with everyone else between the ages of 16 on up. Stations are located usually within a short five minute bike ride of one another with new ones added every other week it seemed, so stumbling upon a full station to drop off a bike wasn’t the end of everything in the center of the city. The news article states that 1,000 bikes were initially disappeared or were damaged in the first year, but I didn’t see any negative side effects even with the general public. It’s not like bikes are flying off bridges left and right. It does state that they’re being used 20,000 times in a day, which is definitely true. The only problem that persists is one that can’t be easily solved. People living up on the hills of Croix Rousse or of Fourvière use the bikes to go down to the city but don’t take them back uphill. It’s too much of a hassle to bike uphill than to take a bus. But to help alleviate the problem there are trucks that ship the bikes up to the stations whenever they’re empty. Oh yeah, another problem is accidentally getting the wheels caught in tram tracks-as anyone from Amsterdam could attest to being pretty painful. As an alternative to busses, metro systems or trams, the bike system really cuts down on traffic and congestion. It’s definitely the most ecological of all modes of transportation and the healthiest. Physically bikes only take up a fraction of the space that cars do and, given the necessary road adjustments to fit the bikers, could cut traffic significantly. In Paris, this is a must as friends always say how difficult it is to get anywhere in the city by car. Next time anyone’s in Paris, keep an eye out for these stations. Hopefully it starts to spread and becomes more widely accepted as a new public transportation mode.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070706/wl_csm/obicyclette_1 - French Revolution: Rentable Bikes Every 900 Feet http://www.velov.grandlyon.com/ - Vélo’V (Lyon)
http://www.velib.paris.fr/ - Vélib' (Paris)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070706/wl_csm/obicyclette_1 - French Revolution: Rentable Bikes Every 900 Feet http://www.velov.grandlyon.com/ - Vélo’V (Lyon)
http://www.velib.paris.fr/ - Vélib' (Paris)
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