Comments on: Twenty Thousand Bikes

By: The Mayor Listened to Me! at Asymptotia

The Mayor Listened to Me! at Asymptotia — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:13:01 +0000

[...] probably not to me, but I have been banging on about the idea for some time, since my 2007 post on Paris’ Velib, so maybe mine was one of the many voices that came to his ears eventually… So they are going [...]

By: Come On LA! at Asymptotia

Come On LA! at Asymptotia — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 19:49:56 +0000

[...] as you may know from several earlier posts (see here and here and the partial list below) I’ve been mumbling about this for LA for years now (and [...]

By: Bcycle at Asymptotia

Bcycle at Asymptotia — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:14:53 +0000

[...] is *exactly* what I was wishing for a couple of years ago in an earlier post or two*. (See here and here.) Also fits nicely with a more limited plan a friend is working on that I’m hoping [...]

By: Didi2004

Didi2004 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:45:15 +0000

Hi,

I just wanted to mention that the Lyon’s official web site for Velov is also available in English (you know, the English flag at the top right of the screen…)

http://www.velov.grandlyon.com/Index.1.0.html?&no_cache=1&L=1

As for the Paris Velib official site, it is also (partially) available in English, once you have selected ‘English’ (or ‘Espanol’) from the ‘Autres langues’ scroll-down list, in the top right section of the display. They would probably be better putting self-explanatory icons…

http://www.en.velib.paris.fr/

Regards

By: VÃ©lib Works! - Asymptotia

VÃ©lib Works! - Asymptotia — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:03:56 +0000

[...] So far. I forgot to point this out a couple of weeks ago. There was a nice story in the Guardian giving a one month update on the progress of the Velib program in Paris. Recall I blogged about its launch here, and expressed hope that the expectations that it would not work were wrong (I’m such an optimist). Well, the news is that it is working! The whole article (by Angelique Chrisafis) is here. A quote: Day and night, tourists, commuters and returning party animals cruise by on the chic new machines. People have joyfully discovered the cheap new way of exercising en route to work or getting home drunk after the metro closes, hence a rush of hires after 1am. There’s a glut of bikes deposited at stands at the bottom of hills and none left at the top, as people freewheel down from the heights of Belleville and Montmartre. [...]

By: Clifford

Clifford — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:51:16 +0000

Ah, that reminds me… I have an update on the Paris situation to report on. Later.

Thanks!

-cvj

By: alfons

alfons — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:48:45 +0000

Thought you'd enjoy this: Bikes in Amsterdam.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:07:09 +0000

Wow! Thanks for the report. It sounds fantastic. I’m looking forward to trying it myself. I do hope other cities take up the scheme…..

Best,

-cvj

By: Marco

Marco — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 10:53:05 +0000

Well, after a couple of weeks that the system is in place I think it is a complete success. I have used it once and it is very fast and convenient. There are even (google) maps on the web to check in advance the availability of bikes and of empty drop-off spots at every station.

People seem to enjoy it a lot and it’s not unusual to see lines forming in front of one of the highly-computerized kiosk. Let’s see how it will go during the winter.

One correction. though: the system is not free, because you need to purchase a one-day card (for 1 euro) or a 1 year card (for 29 euros) to be allowed to pick up the bike. After that, the first 1/2 hour is free and `penalties’ start for a longer renting time. In Lyon, as far as I remember, it is instead completely free.

By: Amara

Amara — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:20:39 +0000

Hi Clifford, I am in Bern for an ISSI (=International Space Sciences Institute) workshop this week, and I see that they have the same free bicycle system too. If the weather was better, I might be interested to try it out.
(With this swiss-german keyboard, you would not believe how difficult that sentence was to type…) Greetings from a beautiful but very rainy place, Amara

By: Peter Lund

Peter Lund — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 16:09:03 +0000

Yes, we have had such a system in Copenhagen for years. In fact, Clinton got one of the citybikes as a present (“Citybike 1″) when he was here as a president.

The bikes are not particularly nice: they weight about 20 kg precisely to make them unattractive for thieves and to make them sturdy enough to take the punishment from vandals.

They are indeed checked and repaired continuously, The project uses labour from people who are otherwise out of work.

I’ve only ever used them one or two times because they aren’t all that nice (they are heavy and don’t drive well; there seems to be too much friction somewhere) and they are only allowed within a zone in central Copenhagen that is so small that I’d personally rather walk. But I don’t mind 45 minute walks

I don’t know how much of a success it really is. It is probably mostly a nicety for tourists and visitors from other parts of the country. And it’s good publicity, of course.

What is a success, though, is the miles after miles of bike tracks on both sides of most major roads and many minor streets too here. Either the tracks are separated from the car lanes by being slightly elevated with a curb (and too small for cars to drive on) or they are painted blue (mostly used in where one street crosses another).

By: Elena

Elena — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:45:20 +0000

I’ve seen this system in many European cities, in most cases it worked for a while and afterwards they were just stolen. The solution was to make them very heavy and distinguishable and hence uncomfortable. However, the existence of GPS has simplified this much in modern times. About cities with a lot of bike traffic, they are not always ready for it (like Cambridge or even London!) and still people uses them. In other places like Spain or Italy where it would be very easy to use bikes because of the weather and the “flatness” of the land people don’t use them. My conclusion is that it is really a mystery to me why people use bikes in some places and not in others. The thing about bikes being stolen is not an excuse. Even in Holland the black market of bikes is huge and you have to lock yours with 3 different locks if you don’t want to get your wheels stolen etc and still, people use them!

By: Mary Cole

Mary Cole — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:35:22 +0000

I think there was a similar scheme in Cambridge some years ago, but it failed as the cycles were just stolen!

By: Clifford

Clifford — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:44:34 +0000

So Will…. shall we start the campaign?

-cvj

By: Will Campbell

Will Campbell — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:15:19 +0000

I was so hoping the bikes would be available when my wife and I were in Paris in May. Oh well, all the more reason to go back.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:14:38 +0000

Well… you fix em. They get returned to camp and tested out and repaired periodically, as part of maintaining your public transport system. Must be the case that somebody tests whether there are brakes from time to time, right? Or do you sign a disclaimer when you get on it that it is at your own risk whether you can stop at the traffic signs or not…. (I don’t know the answer to this…)

-cvj

By: Rutger

Rutger — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:18:49 +0000

Amsterdam has no free bikes as far as I know… unless you seriously want to break the law

However, Copenhagen does! My own experience with these things is that they quite quickly get slightly to severely broken. A good idea in theory…

By: Clifford

Clifford — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:15:35 +0000

Oops. I meant Lyon when I said Nice, in the above. Thanks! (corrected.)

-cvj

By: ovidio

ovidio — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:04:06 +0000

The Velib was implemented in Paris because it proved very useful in Lyon. In Lyon it's been working for two years now, you can also check the Lyon's velov site (in French !).