A low-cost bike scheme launched a week ago in Paris has got off to a triumphant start with almost 350,000 rentals in the first week.
Velib - as in velo for bicycle and liberte for freedom - is the brainchild of Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who is determined to crack down on the capital's high levels of pollution and traffic congestion by encouraging residents and visitors to use a more eco-friendly mode of transport.
The scheme has been an immediate success: just four hours after Velib's official launch, the 10,000 gleaming grey bicycles up for rental at 750 special racks throughout the city had been used more than 15,000 times.
Users pay €29 (£20) for a Velib card which gives them unlimited access to the bikes for one year. Alternatively, one can opt to pay by |
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Parisians are falling for a cheap-as- frites bike rental scheme, says susan bell |
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credit card on a sliding scale. The first half-hour is free, after which the bikes cost €1 (68p) for the second half-hour, €2 for the third and so on. There is no need to return the bike to the same pick-up point; the user can leave it at any of the 750 racks.
Despite France's passion for bike racing - witness their enthusiasm for the Tour de France - only 150,000 of the capital's 2m residents own bicycles. City authorities hope Parisians will adopt Velib en masse. They expect to have at least 200,000 regular users by the end of the year, by which time they will have raised the number of Velib bikes to 20,600, available at 1,451 stations.
So far, at least, the small charge has ensured the bikes do not go the way of Amsterdam's famously free white bikes when they were first introduced - into the canals.
FIRST POSTED JULY 26, 2007 |
