Bike-sharing Arrives in Paris
Paris' Velib' bike-sharing program began this past Sunday with 10,600 bikes set up at 750 stations throughout Paris' 20 arrondissements, or neighborhoods. The program will have 20,600 bikes by the end of the year for use by Parisians as well as tourists. The bikes require a one-day pass at 1 euro ($1.38), weekly pass for 5 euros ($6.90), or annual pass for 29 euros ($40), and then provide 30 minutes of free use to get around the city with a sliding scale fee afterwards.
As The New York Times states in an article published July 16 titled "A New French Revolution's Creed: Let Them Ride Bikes", "Vélib is the brainchild of Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, a Socialist and longtime green campaigner who has set a target for the city to reduce car traffic by 40 percent by 2020. Since he took office in 2001, his administration has added about 125 miles of bicycle paths, at the expense of lanes for cars, prompting accusations from drivers that it has aggravated congestion in the city."
"Still, only about 40,000 of the 2.5 million Parisians say they use their bicycles regularly. Mr. Delanoë would like to raise that number to 250,000 by the end of the year." This goal is likely attainable as Barcelona's Bicing bike-sharing program which started in March with about 1,000 bikes has already doubled the number of bike trips, according to the city.
For more information on bike-sharing, visit the Bike-sharing Blog.
photo credit: Paul DeMaio
