Vélib'

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Vélib’ is a bike hire service (“vélo libre” or “vélo liberté”, English: free bicycle or bicycle freedom) is a public bicycle rental programme in Paris, France. Launched on July 15, 2007, 10,000 bicycles were introduced to the city with 750 hire points each with 15 or more bikes/spaces. This number has grown to 20,000 bicycles and 1,450 automated stations.

Prior to Velib, a medium-scale bike hire operation - Roue Libre - operated in Paris, co-ordinated with RATP (which runs buses and Metro services in Paris). Its continued operation may be in question with the 10-fold increase in hire bike numbers and massive improvement in hire bike accessibility.

1 System
2 Rates
3 Other similar systems
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

[edit] System

Velib is an initiative pushed by Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë

The system is owned and operated by the city authorities and financed by the JCDecaux advertising corporation, in return for Paris signing over the income from a substantial portion of on-street advertising. This model was first used in France in 1998 by Adshel (now part of Clear Channel) in Rennes.

Other such schemes are operational in other cities, using different models. In Copenhagen, a not-for profit foundation has operated a free open access bike scheme seasonally since 1995 and six German cities are served by Call a Bike which is run by Deutsche Bahn. Perhaps one of the original electronically managed systems was Bikeabout ^[1](1996) at Portsmouth University, from which many lessons were learned.

All avoid the downfall of free city bike schemes by making users liable for a big fine if bikes are not returned or kept on hire, hence the free 30 minute period to encourage bikes to circulate, and exponential increases in hire rates for longer periods, very much like City Car Clubs. Most use heavy bikes designed for very low maintenance and some like the CIOS-designed bikes in Copenhagen are rebuilt annually (some Copenhagen bikes are 12 years old). Like the London Taxi, the bikes are by their unique design less attractive to thieves than normal bikes.

[edit] Rates

A Velib pay station

In order to use the system, users need to take out a subscription, which allows the subscriber an unlimited number of rentals. Subscriptions can be purchased by the day, week or year, at a price of, respectively, 1, 5, or 29 euros. With a subscription, bike rental is free for the first half hour of every individual trip, then costs one to four euros for each subsequent 30-minute period. The increasing price scale is intended to keep the bikes in circulation. Either a credit card with obligatory EMV-chip (all french cards, most european cards) or a Navigo pass is required to sign up for the programme and to rent bikes. As of June 2008, most USA credit cards are not equipped with an EMV chip.

Rate examples: