Comments on: Paris Vélib’ Update: How’s the bike share program working out?

By: William

William — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:57:41 +0000

The Velib system is quite literally being submerged under a tidal wave of repairs due to vandalism, coupled with heavy theft losses. JCDecanaux is repairing 1,500 bicycles per week, which amounts to 100% of the inventory every 2 weeks. In three years, 80% of all Velib bikes have been vandalised or stolen. How long the corporate sponsor is willing to keep up 11 repair centres and continually replace stolen bikes in exchange for billboard space is anyone’s guess, but once they decide to end the contract, these substantial costs will most likely be taken over by the French taxpayer (and become a matter of public record). Once we can all see the true costs of this venture, most practical people will conclude they’d be a lot better off with a $50 secondhand bike.

By: Florian Robardet

Florian Robardet — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:09:47 +0000

Hello all,
Hi Bryan

It is funny to see you’ve found my video and thought it was good enough to be featured in your article about Velib 😉

I agree with you about the fact Velib is one of the most magical experiences available in Paris for just a few euros. Fortunately, I haven’t met that many hassles and I don’t have my own bike, as I prefer much more to rely on Velib, although some disadvantages.

Here is a tip for those who want to keep the experience as cheap as possible : renting is free (except subscription price) for the first 30 minutes. So if you plan to ride your bike for an hour, you’d better return it within 30 minutes, wait, and then take the same again.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:23:41 +0000

Actually Russ they HAVE hit London (http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-30/world/london.bike.share.launch_1_bikes-scheme-buses-and-black-taxis?_s=PM:WORLD) and there are even talks of a similar system hitting up New York soon (can you imagine???).

France has bike shares in many cities, but most of them are run by the same company JCDecaux. The bikes usually look similar but, as you correctly point out John, they have different names.

By: John

John — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:42:26 +0000

Many cities are introducing bike sharing programs. I have seen the Brussels, Villo!, Luxembourg’s Vel’oh and Amiens’ Velam. Wikipedia has a list of schemes but doesn’t include the one at Amiens, so there may be even more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_sharing_system

By: russ

russ — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:18:26 +0000

I would definately use one of these if it came to the UK – although i could see them being more sucessful if you didn’t need a credit card to use them?

Are these only active in Paris? Don’t Amsterdam & Brussels have a similar system in their cities?