The Wheel Turns In Paris
Building on similar schemes' success, Paris has just pulled off an impressive first month for a citywide cycling initiative involving the deployment of 10,000 bikes. 1,5 million journey were completed on the bikes, available to all under a subscription scheme, with each bike being used some seven times a day. Paris sensibly chose a quiet summer month to launch the scheme. Vandalism and theft have not proved insurmountable problems.
An annual subscription is supplemented by charges that rise steeply after a free first half hour, encouraging the bikes to ridden from one rack to the next, rather than being checked out for longer then left to rot in some dusty garage, like a forgotten library book. It's a smart system, reminding users that the bikes are owned communally and intended primarily for transport. Tourists will still find it cheaper to rent a bike for the day from a bike store. No data yet on what the substitution effect is for car journeys, rather than walking or public transport. But congratulations to the Mairie de Paris, which has used the past ten years to make the city one the world's friendliest for bicycles with real bike lanes often providing complete separation from pedestrians and cars.
The only apparent downside would appear to be increasing visual pollution in the city. Municipal services giant JC Decaux, already provider of Paris's pay toilets, newspaper kiosks and bus shelters, has provided the bicycles in exchange for being granted yet more space for selling outdoor advertising in the city.
