The city plans to park 10,648 bicycles at 750 stations with riders able to take bikes from one station and drop them off at another.
The move will encourage residents to leave their cars at home and help reduce pollution and the gridlock
PARIS: It’s summer in Paris and the French capital is preparing to offer bikes for anyone who wants to take a ride. By July 15, the city plans to park 10,648 bicycles at 750 stations and nearly double that by 2008, with riders able to take bikes from one station and drop them off at another.
Work on ‘’Velib’’’ (short for ‘free bike’ in French) is just starting, but it is sparking enormous interest. The concept evolved from utopian bike-sharing programmes in Europe in the 1960s, aimed at reducing the use of cars and cutting down on traffic congestion and air pollution.
Renting a bike is simple: cyclists choose a bike and insert a pre-paid card or credit card in a terminal to unlock it from the station. When they are done, they lock it up at any station. If a bike is used for less than 30 minutes, the credit card will not be charged. Every half hour after that costs 1.33 dollars. Weekly rentals cost five euros and yearly rentals just 29 euros.
In the residential 15th district in southwestern Paris, a parking spot next to a corner cafe is being adapted to become home to a fleet of sleek, grey bicycles. “I think the programme is a good thing, and it will help reduce the number of cars on the street,” said Jean-Michel Bourdet, who owns a nearby video store. “I used to ride bikes all the time, but they all kept getting stolen. Now I’m going to start riding again,” he said.
Velib’ bikes will be equipped with a lock and an alarm that will sound if the bike is not returned to a station. There will also be a security deposit that riders will lose if their bike vanishes.
“We hope car use will diminish and that people will opt to take a bicycle or the bus,’’ said City Hall spokeswoman Gwenaelle Joffre, who is overseeing the project. Velib’ is part of a wide-ranging plan drawn up by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe to encourage residents to leave their cars at home.
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