• Yellow Bike Program in Paris?

    Parisian Cycling

    Well, not exactly (the bikes are actually a silvery grey color), but yes, Paris has a city wide bike share/rental program. In a recent stop-over in Paris on my way back home from studying abroad, I decided to spend an afternoon wandering the neighborhood around Notre Dame Cathedral. I was immediately struck by the rows of sleekly designed, basket-equipped bicycles, neatly lining the streets every few blocks. Each bike was marked with a funky Vélib logo (a mix of vélo, bike in French, and liberté, freedom), The bikes are hooked into specially designed bike-stands that keep them locked until someone needs a bike and swipes their access card at one of the computerized pay stations (which look like glorified ATM machines). The rider can then drop off and lock up the bike at whichever station is closest to their final destination (rarely more than 1,000 ft away than any spot in the city). The company (JCDecaux) tracks the bikes electronically by keeping tabs on the location from which each bike was last released and returned.

    The program was started in Paris in March 2007 after it experienced major success in Lyon (France’s third largest city) when it was started there in 2005. An aid of the mayor of Paris said, “We think it could change Paris’s image — make it quieter, less polluted, with a nicer atmosphere, a better way of life.” The beauty of the program is that it is so cheap and convenient. Because riders are not charged for trips under 30 minutes, the vast majority of rides are entirely free. Working men and women frequently use the bikes to run errands during their lunch breaks and students find them faster than buses and subways for getting to class. Tourists can use them to get from sight to sight. Daily, weekly and yearly passes are respectively approximately 1,5 and 29 euros. This new system makes it far more desirable to rent these bikes than to buy your own—you don’t have to worry about repairs or theft.

    Photo by Flickr user The Noggin Nogged used under a Creative Commons license