This is disappointing, but not surprising. Apparently, the influential Paris bike rental scheme that was set up in 2007 is in danger of being cancelled because the company running it can't afford to cover the costs of stolen and damaged bikes.
Ah, I see the university students of Paris have found something more fun than a traffic cone to play with on their way home from the pub. Photo from
Le Parisien.
The BBC has a story about it
here, under the witty headline of "Thefts Puncture Paris Bike Scheme." See what they did there? Anyway, it seems that over half the original fleet of 15,000
Velib bicycles have completely disappeared, and many of the remaining bikes are in pretty bad nick, which is understandable given that the bikes have been used 42 million times since the scheme began, and each bike travels an average of 10,000km a year.
I'm not a wrench, but something tells me this is a
little bit more than regular wear and tear. Photo from
Le Parisien.
The original
Velib scheme, in Lyon, didn't have the same problems as the Paris scheme, and has a much lower rate of stolen or damaged bikes. But, with the company in charge of the Paris scheme planning on stopping it altogether unless the city government coughs up some cash to cover the costs (alliteration!) it seems like the
Velibs may be on their way out, and if it's cancelled in Paris, what will happen to the planned schemes in cities like London, Dublin, San Francisco and Singapore?
Ah, I see the university students of Paris have found something more fun than a traffic cone to play with on their way home from the pub. Photo from Le Parisien.
I'm not a wrench, but something tells me this is a little bit more than regular wear and tear. Photo from Le Parisien.
8 comments:
we have bike sharing in washington dc as well. small test run right now.
Great program but I am worried that the add dollars that supported these programs will dry given the state of the economy.
Perhaps that is a reason the velib operator is seeking public money.
Yeah. I could probably have titled the piece "Private Company Demands Government Bailout. Surprise!"
Hope the DC tests go well. I lived there for a little while and it seems like a good city to bike in.
it'll tank the proposed systems, definitely, unless they can somehow balance the sheets to cover the costs of imminent misuse/destruction.
this is why we can't have nice things!
They require a credit card, or should. You don't return the bike, you pay for it. Pretty simple.
Cezar, that's what I thought too, but it seems that even with the credit card system half of the bikes have been stolen. The company claims that it recovers 20 abandoned bike a day. That's a lot. Something doesn't add up.
it's not a card system, it's a deposit system (of EU150). i would reckon that the amount was chosen to offset an *expected* replacement rate. from the sounds of it, the need to replace the bikes is greatly outpacing the deposits.
as far as why the numbers are so high, i don't know what the actual policies are regarding theft or vandalism etc. how is vandalism reported? who is responsible for cut locks etc? it would be hard to make someone pay up for a EU400 bike when someone came along with bolt cutters and swiped the bike.
but, as soon as it's cheaper for JCD to buy the advertising space outright instead of trade for it, they will have to drop the program. no telling how much it would cost for the govt to run it.
Thanks for the clarification, Chris.
off the subject but i'd like to see how they did that to that lower picture - that's insane! i bet no alcohol was involved, ha
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