Easy riding around Paris

  Thousands of Parisians discovered a new pleasure yesterday -- cruising legally along the bus lanes that have snarled up traffic in recent years by curbing the road space. Their vehicles were not cars, but stately grey bicycles.

Sunday was the start of Mayor Bertrand Delanoe's Révolution de la Bicyclette, the scheme to tame the traffic by turning Paris into what might be called The City of Bike[June post]. Day one of the Vélib scheme, in which 10,600 bikes are available for next to nothing, was a great success. In six hours, the bikes had been borrowed 22,500 times. I joined other Parisians and visitors freewheeling in the sunshine down the boulevards -- and sweating up the hills in 30 degree (86 farenheit) temperatures. 

Crowds had gathered around many of the 750 high-tech stations when they went live, releasing their gleaming grey velos for one euro to anyone with a credit card or a pre-registered subscription.

Taking one meant waiting for a turn at a single registration point on each rank. After two minutes of button pressing, it gave me a one-day rental card. I promised electronically never to leave the bike out of my sight, climbed aboard the elegant retro-styled Vélib and glided down the Boulevard Péreire to the Arc de Triomphe [arriving there, left]

Previews had bemoaned the hefty 22kg weight of the bikes, which are provided free to the city by an urban equipment company in return for billboard space. But a few turns of the pedal showed that the unisex machine cruises smoothly on level ground. Built to resist vandals, it has hand-gripped three-speed gears that can be changed while stationary. It also carries a basket and a flimsy antitheft cable.

A notice on the handlebars recites the bicycle code: “I will not ride on the side-walk... I will stop at red lights..I will respect one-way streets.” Such rules are a novelty to most Paris cyclists, who have until now regarded themselves as being exempt from the highway code. The incline to the Arc de Triomphe exposed the burden of the weight. More gears would have helped. The bulk, however, seemed an advantage while negotiating the high-speed circus of the Place de l’Etoile. There was not much traffic. I wouldn't try it on a working day. Freewheeling down the Champs Elysées felt like the home straight of the Tour de France, with dozens of other Vélibs in company and even spectators shouting encouragement.

Speed, though, is not what the Vélib is about. Mayor Delanoë’s aim was to supply indestructible bikes for short trips around the compact capital. The essence is availability. Bike stations, which will double in numbers by the end of the year, will be no more than 275 metres (300 yards) apart. Machines can be dropped off anywhere. If bicycles are absent, the system tells you where to find the nearest one.

The first half-hour is free, with an extra euro added for the first additional half-hour, two euros for the second and four euros for every extra half-hour from then on.

Handing a bicycle to the first customer, Delanoë said that the service would “bring to lovers of Paris a little more air, a little more innovation and, as its name suggests, a lot more liberty”. In his view, Paris will regain the atmosphere of carefree 20th-century hit songs such as Yves Montand’s La Bicyclette or Joe Dassin’s Dans Paris à vélo. He dismissed as unfair criticism from safety experts, drivers and media, who say that with only 200 miles of bicycle lanes, Paris is not ready for such a revolution.

Joe Dassin -Dans Paris à Velo-
Le Monde grumbled: “The risks are multiplied by throwing on to the streets waves of neophytes, especially if the Vélib users adopt the same suicidal behaviour of regular cyclists.” Delanoë pointed out that the bicycle safety rate had been improving in recent years.

The mayor's gamble is that flooding the streets with bikes will tame the gladiatorial habits of Parisian drivers. Bicycles have been gaining favour in Paris lately but, the novelty of the communal Vélibs created a festive mood yesterday, in keeping with Delanoë’s policy of adding a funky side to the capital. The cynics say that the bikes will stay on their ranks when the city gets back to work after the summer. In this morning's rush-hour, I noticed that most of the bikes remained moored on their ranks. But then it was raining. 

[Vélibs await their riders]

Comments

[raindrop]

Le Monde grumble is not that fundless.

When Velov' was introduced in Lyon way prior to in Paris, first months met several casualities: bikes again tram and others accidents...

[Frank Schnittger]

What a dashing chap you are, Charles, and always up there with the latest trends! The Greens have just joined a coalition Government in Ireland, and made a point of cycling to work on their first day in office. I will make a point of writing to them appending a link to your perspicacious report. If anyone can make cycling fashionable again it is a distinguished aviator and intrepid reporter such as your good self

[Ros]

No need to be pessimistic, Charles, (I'm not saying cynical). All the same, maybe you saw on France 2 last night plenty of Velibs on the pavements - this of course, is dangerous and ridiculous & must be curbed à la rentrée. Anyhow you seemed to be enjoying yourself on yours - very good photo taken with no car in sight - I wonder how?

[Helen]

I'd have tried it yesterday, but it was just too hot! Maybe during the week.

[Terry]

Charles:

A terrible example you set. Where is your bicycle helmet?

Many U.S. states require bicycle helmets even for adults. I think the law is quite silly myself. Does France have a helmet law? Will Paris be providing helmets to all? Just wait until heads start rolling again at the concord.

[azloon]

"The mayor's gamble is that flooding the streets with bikes will tame the gladiatorial habits of Parisian drivers."

hmmmmmm....the christians didn't seem to tame the lions all that much.

CB, where's your helmet? are you wearing clean underwear? (american joke)

do you realize how jelly-like your brain tissue is, and how badly it 'works' after it has oozed from the skull?

i am imagining the style-conscious french are not big fans of helmets, even the small ones that sit on top of the skull.

their 'bad.'

neurosurgeons are salivating.

[Daniel Strohl]

Charles,

The photograph with the Arc de Triomphe in the background is funny.

One may presume that it has been shot by a lady. Experience shows that if ladies are able to do two things simultaneously (thanks to an inborn software enabling them to run their two cerebral hemispheres really in parallel), they sometimes have problems to shoot photos vertically and/or without cutting legs or heads ...

[Constance Hamilton]

Charles dear!
I have discovered you only recently, and I just LOVE you articles on Paris, city that I love much and where I have lived off an on, "when I was still young"!...
In fact, it was quite by accident that I discovered you! I used to like the Times; not anymore. In fact, i only connect myself because of you: Gentle, humorous, balanced, Paris loving. How can one not love Paris?!? there ought to be something wrong with anyone who claims that: Ca ne va pas dans la tete, sans doute!...
Thanks for sending me a whiff of that wonderful corner of the world. If only you knew how it feels to be thousands of miles away, at the very end of the map...
Once more, merci! Vous etes formidable!!!

[azloon]

terry --

note sure why, but thought you might enjoy article linked below:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/16/opinion/edmehta.php

mumbai makes newark sound like the garden of eden (and problems discussed here more like misquito bites)

[john]

This free bicycle scheme is about as futile as trying to curb car traffic and pollution in LA by introducing bikes in downtown LA. These bikes will be available only in the tiny City of Paris, but not in the sprawling suburbs where the majority of people live. Besides, INSEE showed repeatedly that a majority of Parisian commutes are longer than 10 km, which is not something that can be reasonably done by bike.

I think Le Monde newspaper had it right in their editorial last week when they wrote (my translation): "The development of cycling in the City of Paris cannot make us forget that pollution knows no administrative borders. The real problem of Paris transportation is an agglomeration-wide problem. It is an obvious fact, and it will take much more than bicycles to get through it."

[christopher muir]

While Beijing clears its polluted thoroughfares of bicycles and replaces them with cars, Paris does the reverse. It's a funny old world all right. Was Bertrand Delanoe by any chance influenced by the words of a Chilean politician called Jose Antonio Viera Gallo? "Socialism", said the Chilean, "can only arrive by bicycle."

[azloon]

for those who couldn't attend bastille day en personne, i offer the following:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid959009704?bclid=979307711&bctid=1112157349

apparently tout le paris was not appreciative of NS's emphasis on pan-european participation in the festivities (as, perhaps, americans might not think having the chinese, germans or japanese marching in our fourth of july parades was particularly cool.

i couldn't disagree more. i say let these guys with guns march down any street they want for one day each year. terry, maybe you could be in the parade next year.

[Maggie]

It strikes me there is a true breach of EU rules here, which I understood says, safety helmets must be worn by cyclists ?
Maybe the French are exempt from this law too, along with many others they ignore.

[teresa]

i think this is a fabulous idea, i'll be living in paris next year and the prospect of less cars and more bikes is brilliant and i'll definately make use of such a scheme!

[Robert Marchenoir]

Maggie: after straight bananas, helmets for cyclists?

It's no business of Euro bureaucrats' to tell citizens what to wear when riding a bike. That's a matter for individual countries to decide.

All right, the straight banana rule imposed by Brussels is an urban myth. I just hope that this helmet story is another one.

Also, regardless of laws, people might use a bit of common sense. And exercise their freedom, too.

I see plenty of people with bicycle helmets in Paris. I don't object to that, as long as they don't try to impose their disgusting habits on others.

I also see a lot of people with toddlers in a baby seat on the back of their bicycle in the middle of traffic, which, if you ask me, is barking madness.

An adult has the right to risk splitting his skull if he's so inclined. I'm not so sure about subjecting babies to an even greater danger.

When I was a child and cycled to school everyday, bicycle helmets did not exist. I'm still around to report this fact.

Stuff nutty elf'n'safety officials! Bring in Boris Johnson!

[Paul B]

Maggie, there is no EU rule stating that safety helmet must be worn by cyclists. I don't even think there is a british one.

[Tom]

Even if it only has a negligeable effect on pollution/congestion/driving habits, the Velib' is still a bloody great idea.

I've already found it's speeded up my commute in the morning, plus allows me to get back from wherever I am in Paris late at night (after the last métro) without having to mess around with taxis or the noctilien. Toxic fumes aside, it's also great exercise.

[Simon]

As a resident of Amsterdam, I can understand the approach of mayor Delanoe. In order to get the cross-aisle support needed to fund the building of a city-and suburb wide safe cycling lane infrastructure, you will first need to create a critical mass of cyclists demanding it. Or you'll never get the money. Le Monde's article was a splendid, recognizable, knee-jerk french "c'est impossible!" moment. But it was wrong in more than one ways: Paris may have some hills, but the east-west axis is just as flat as Amsterdam, and if you start and are successful, the rest of the urban conglomeration will have to follow. Hats off to Delanoe!

[marine]

Simon, you're so right.
A socialist mayor, a wealthy company (JCDecaux), that could be a good recipe.
I hope the parisians are clever enough to enjoy the freedom bikes can give them. There will always be old conservatives to consider using a car in town when they could do otherwise is something close to a fundamental freedom, but I hope this kind of initiative will help people to understand that changing behavior can turn into a win-win situation.

[Thomas]

About the helmet : in France it is strongly advised to wear a helmet, but no one will force you (we're not as much of a Nanny State as GB, even if our new president, who considers this country as a model, wants to use more and more CCTV - but that's another question).

About Velib itself : well, I'd say it's an excellent idea. Creates a great mood in town, and Lyons has taken great profit - in terms of image above all - of the very same system.
And once again, we can't ask anyone to be a good rider before he buys a bike, so why wouldn't we rent him?