That's the title of an article in News from France

it mentions that three months after paris launched its Velib' bike scheme, which Fodorites in the know have pronounced a huge success, Marseille has started its own Le Velo service, with 750 bikes, 80 stations and 70 km of 'bike friendly' lanes. Along with the start of a new tramway this makes Marseille a forward looking city trying to calm auto traffic.

It says over 15 French cities now offer some form of such bikes, including:

Lyon, Besancon, Paris, Aix-en-Porvence, Bordeaux, nancy, with Toulouse, nantes and Rouen ready to launch bikes by 2008.

"La petite reine" it says means Little Queen, as 'bikes are known'.

News from France is a free monthly print newsletter available free: [email protected]

It always has some interesting things of interest to travelers, francophiles.

www.ambafrance.org
www.france.diplomatie.fr

Who here has used these bikes? Sounds like a great program.

Here's one i dug up and Kerouac has written about them quite a bit and knows a lot about how it's going.

Author: Rumseydog

Velib’ On!
We had read so much about Velib’ — the new bike rental system that has become omnipresent in Paris — that my wife and I were determined to try it (the two articles we read appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post). There are Velib’ stations seemingly on every other street corner. We were a little nervous about how the whole interface would work as we waited at a touch-screen kiosk behind a pair of Frenchmen near the Pont Neuf. We got even more nervous as the two of them repeatedly punched buttons, walked over to the bikes, and unsuccessfully tried to remove them. Finally, after their third try, they realized that you must press a button on the top of the stanchion that holds up the bike to release it. Voilà! They were off, and we had learned a key step in the process.

As it turned out, we really didn’t have much trouble figuring the whole thing out. There is an English touch-screen menu available, some “Validate” green buttons to push as you proceed through the menus and instructions, and everything is pretty well explained. One of the articles we read said that most American credit cards that lack “chips” won’t be accepted at the Velib’ kiosks, but that American Express cards would be. Sure enough, our AMEX card worked fine.

We ended up buying two one-day subscriptions, agreed to a 150€ charge should we run off with the bikes and never return them, selected our own unique 4-digit ID code (we used our two debit card PIN numbers so we’d remember them easily), received a numbered ticket, and that was it. With ticket and PIN number in hand, you can then withdraw a bike from any Velib’ station by inserting your ticket and typing in your corresponding PIN number. As an indication of just how popular Velib’ is in Paris, between getting my ticket and getting my wife’s ticket about 4 minutes later (based on the sequential ID number on each ticket), 65 Velib’ subscriptions had been issued across Paris!

After a total of about 15 minutes, we withdrew two bikes and were on our way. We biked halfway across the Pont Neuf, turned up the Île de la Cité, crossed over to the Île St Louis, and crossed over the Seine to the Latin Quarter. The first Velib’ station we arrived at on Rue de Ecoles was completely filled with bikes, so we had to ask where the next closest station was. Fortunately, there was a station two blocks up Rue des Carmes next to the Pantheon (up a fairly steep hill), and it was completely empty.

We weren’t exactly certain how we should return our two bikes (did we have to punch in our code at the kiosk again?), so we waited just a few minutes until someone else rode up and simply slid their bike back into one of the stanchions. A light on the stanchion turned yellow, then green, and the person just walked away. So that’s what we did. Apparently each bike has an embedded ID code that is recognized by the system, and it was able to “log” our bike back into the system (at least, we hope so!!!)

The system’s best feature is that if you return your bike within one hour, the rental is free! Our bike ride cost my wife and I nothing—and saved us two Métro tickets! And on a cool, sunny November day, it was really fun.

The naysayers in Paris said that when cold and rain set in, the bikes would be abandoned by the riders.

Not so. Even though there is less use during very rainy days, there are more bikes on the streets of Paris than ever -- the majority of which are not even Vélib bikes, but which have come out of closets and cellars due to the bike craze in the city.

Stores selling bikes are doing booming business and the only people crying so far are the bike rental shops, which are learning to branch out into bike sales and accessories like reflective vests and helmets.

One of the main things stopping bike usage in Paris in past years was stolen bikes. It appears that with Vélib, the 'need' (or desire) to steal bikes has greatly diminished since you can use bikes all day, over and over again, for just 1 euro without any legal risk.

I have nevertheless read that the two stolen Vélib bikes found the farthest from home were discovered in Russia and Senegal.

As for myself, I use a Vélib about 4 times a day for quite short distances -- from the metro exit to my office, for example, which is only about 600 meters. I also now go to the movies much more often, as there is a multiplex that I can get to by bike in about 8 minutes, compared to 15 minutes + walking by metro. On the weekend, I have found that I can cross half of Paris (in my case, Porte de la Chapelle to Châtelet) in just 15 minutes, which is much faster than using the metro.

And of course, I never forget that all of this is good for me.

In terms of safety, since July, I once ran directly into a drunken bum who jumped in front of me at a red light (and who said something that I will not repeat here), but neither of us fell down, so there was no injury. And I have 'brushed' two side-view mirrors while squeezing between lines of stopped cars, which seems to annoy drivers but which is of absolutely no consequence.

Jack - we've been thru this discussion a bit before

but do you recommend tourists to try the bikes or are the hidden dangers that tourists may not realize - mainly traffic not apparent to novice Paris bikers.

It seems in the past bike lanes have not been respected - are they doing a better job of keeping parked cars, etc. out of the lanes.

I think actually riding in traffic would be daunting for the average tourist but if bike lanes are respected in may be much better experience.

Thanks PalenQ for finding and posting my November report on Velib'. It's a great rental program and once you figure everything out, it couldn't be easier. I would think some of the larger college campuses across the USA would buy into this program in a big way!

We'll definitely use Velib' on our next trip to Paris.

A small element of reality. There was a Velib station outside our apartment on the Rue Keller and we had the opportunity to observe the bikes in use. In the space of a week I saw two close encounters with cars by riders who were without any safety gear. The narrow streets, heavy traffic and slippery stone streets in the Bastille make for considerable trouble for bicyclists. I can't imagine what it would be like in a Parisian winter.
Warm fellings about the ecological advantages of bikes ought not to obscure the dangers of this quaint mode of transpotation.

I have found myself to be a bolder biker than I ever expected (especially since I never had a bicycle as a child), but the more timid quickly discover well-protected bike lanes. True, there are certain places where they are not respected, but there are also bike lines in various places where cars can not even get -- many of the broad boulevards have bike lanes either up on the sidewalk well away from the cars or on the central neutral ground, well protected as well. Just about the entire itinerary of metro line 2 has a combination of this, for example.

Where there are no bike lanes, one very quickly discovers that any large boulevard or avenue will do, and even more so if it is one way. The most uncomfortable situation is on a narrow one way street with cars behind you. They never run you down, but you feel morally obligated to pedal your heart out until you get to an intersection where they can get around you.

It should be mentioned that the Paris suburbs were so jealous of Vélib that a deal has been struck with 30 towns touching Paris. Before spring, another 4500 bikes will be added in these towns, at 300 new stations. The city of Paris is financing the installation in the suburbs, but will receive 100% of the revenue.

Inside Paris, the advertising company JC Decaux has financed 100% of the cost of the 1500 stations and 20,000 bikes -- and the city of Paris still receives 100% of the revenue. Not a bad deal.

Question, which suburbs will have Velib?? I'm going to Paris next week and I will be staying int Anthony (or Antony, my apologies for the spelling)I'm wondering if there will be Velib stations there....anybody know?

Clear Channel (the competition) threw a monkey wrench in the works for the expansion, on legal technicalities. 33 cities ringing Paris were clamoring to join the scheme by this summer, but since it is all linked to billboard contracts, Clear Channel was able to stop it.

Since then, 7 cities have managed to wriggle free of Clear Channel and will soon have bicycle stations, but they are north of Paris -- Saint Denis, La Plaine Saint Denis, Aubervilliers, etc. Much press attention will be paid to them as soon as they have their stations and bikes, so you will hear about it.

AyQueHago, Antony isn't "Ville de Paris". Velib stations are shown on the Paris maps on www.pagesjaunes.fr (white tick on a purple background) and I can't see any in Antony.

I noted that Barcelona has adopted a similar program. their bikes are red and white so they are a bit more "seeable".

As we were sitting drinking a nightcap at a bar right next to a Velib station about 10:30 at night, we noted that it had filled completely for the evening and several bikers pulled up only to need to find other stations nearby to return their bikes. I'd guess that there is something of a problem of return at some of the more central, heavily used areas. This was on the Carrefour de Odeon.

Barcelona has a "Clear Channel" bike contract.

As for the full Vélib stations, if you punch into the central computer through the station post, it tells you where spaces are available at nearby stations and it gives you an extra 15 minutes to get there.

Also, as of June 1st, people will receive a bonus 15 minutes for returning bikes to a hundred or so 'higher altitude' stations in Montmarte and Menilmontant where bikes never seem to return spontaneously.

>Barcelona has a "Clear Channel" bike contract.<
Dijon has one too (since late March) They are called Velodi

We have red and white bikes in Perpignan but I don't know the name. The bikes are everywhere.

I do see many trucks with "Clear Channel" on their sides. Maybe this is the company.

Blackduff
Le-Petite-Reine-Argeles

Brussels started something similar: cyclocity. Unfortunately, the bike pickup places also happen to be in the same areas known for the most horrendous drivers in Brussels (and that's saying a lot). The last place I want to start a bike route is the Place Louise, with its trams, irritated and clueless car-driving mob, truckers impatient to unload their cargo, and wayward pedestrians.
No bike lanes there either.

Now if they put some of these over in the Stokkel area, allowing you to ride the serene "rails to trails" path over to the Parc Woluwe and around the green and attractive Woluwe residential areas, I'd happily hop on.

This Clear Channel outfit must be i guess the same mega American company that owns zillions of media - radio and TV stations and cable?

what do they do it France?

curious

They do billboards in France. They also have the SNCF contract for all advertising inside the train stations. They just lost it for outside the stations, thank goodness, because it was preventing JC Décaux from putting Vélib bike stations directly in front of the train stations -- that problem is now being remedied.

Clear Channel has a rather Wal-Mart like negativity here in their heartless tactics, etc.