Paris has one of the largest and most emulated bike-sharing systems in the world
Paris is already home to the largest bicycle-sharing system in the world, but the corporation set up to manage the city’s most eco-friendly form of public transport, Velib, has extensive expansion plans for the network, which is also one of the most copied in the world.
Bicycle rental systems have been common in Europe since at least 1995 when Copenhagen, one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world, launched their Bycyklen initiative. Paris was therefore a bit of a struggler when we launched our network in 2007.
The idea of the project is fairly well-known to most Parisians: those who want to use the system subscribe to Velib, which allows them to use a Velib bike for half an hour free each day, if they need to use it for longer, the rates go up in half hour blocks until 2 hours, at which point 5 hours, 10 hours or 20 hours can be purchased (per day).
One hour is Euro 1, while 2 hours is Euro 7. The disproportionate increase in the price is designed to prevent people hiring the bikes for long periods as the system is meant to operate as short-term-use one where people cycle from their nearest Velib stall to one nearest their place of work or shopping.
There were initially 750 of these automated stations dotted around Paris, each with around fifteen bikes. Users swipe their card to release a bike and set off. The number of stalls has since increased to over 1,600, with 20,000 bikes on the system in total. This means that anywhere in the city centre there is a Velib stall within 300 meters, according to press material released to Paris news media at the time of the expansion.
In addition, the bicycle-transport fleet, the vans that redistribute the bikes around the city to prevent build ups in any one spot, was also increased to 23 vehicles. These reportedly operate around the clock, as does the Velib system.
According to the highest estimates, the project has cost the local government Euro 76 million of tax payer’s money thus far, with an additional Euro 56 million spent on replacing bikes that got damaged or were never returned.
Supporters of the initiative point out that this is still vastly less than the funding required to introduce new public transport systems such as trams, busses or trains, or the money needed to expand such projects.
It is largely because of this that bicycle-sharing schemes have taken off across the rest of the world with 43 cities currently operating the scheme as part of their integrated public transport networks. Paris’ model has been copied extensively in cities such as Mexico, London, Minneapolis, Melbourne and Ottawa, as well as Boston and Washington, D.C.
Now, Velib has announced to Paris news media that there are yet greater expansion plans in the works on the back of strong demand from the city. The expansion project will be carried out in conjunction with the local government, which has announced that hundreds of kilometers of roads around the city will be re-laned in order to incorporate bike lanes.
Almost 700 kilometers of new bike lanes will be designated for use of cyclers, mainly made up of Velib users, and the company has said that by 2020 it will have doubled the number of bikes it operates from 20,000 to 40,000. The new lanes will be completed by 2014, currently there are around 440 kilometers of bike lanes in Paris.
In addition, Velib has outlined plans to increase the number of bike stalls throughout the city by over 100 each year, constituting an increase in the number of bike stands available by 1000 each year.
“We've entered a new era,” Cecile Chartier, who is a member of a local cycling association, told Paris news media. “Five years ago people were scandalised when bike lanes were introduced, as if they were nuclear power plants. They said they would never be used. Now they are accepted without question.”
She, like Velib, sees a bright future for bike use in the country’s capital city and such hopes seem to be supported by the figures, which show that 80 million rides were undertaken on the system in its first three years of operation with around 162,000 long-term subscribers.
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Paris has one of the largest and most emulated bike-sharing systems in the world
Paris is becoming ever more eco-friendly with bike-sharing becoming the major fad of daily commuters and public transport users. The system is so popular, major expansion plans have been announced.
Paris is already home to the largest bicycle-sharing system in the world, but the corporation set up to manage the city’s most eco-friendly form of public transport, Velib, has extensive expansion plans for the network, which is also one of the most copied in the world. Read more
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