Paris to Adopt Citywide Bikes

by Jordan Yerman | March 27, 2007 at 08:23 am

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Paris will launch a city-wide low-cost bike rental program, with rental hubs scattered across the city for pick-up and drop-off ease. City officials hope these human-powered vehicles will reduce traffic and pollution as well as give paris a more relaxed image.

By the end of the year, organizers and city officials say, there should be 20,600 bikes at 1,450 stations - or about one station every 250 yards across the entire city. Based on experience elsewhere - particularly in Lyon, France's third-largest city, which launched a similar system two years ago -- regular users of the bikes will ride them almost for free.

"It has completely transformed the landscape of Lyon - everywhere you see people on the bikes," said Jean-Louis Touraine, the city's deputy mayor. The programme was meant "not just to modify the equilibrium between the modes of transportation and reduce air pollution, but also to modify the image of the city and to have a city where humans occupy a larger space."

The Socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delano, has the same aim, said his aide, Jean-Luc Dumesnil: "We think it could change Paris's image - make it quieter, less polluted, with a nicer atmosphere, a better way of life."

One of my favorite things about Amsterdam is the plethora of bicycles. That city, too, has pick-up and drop-off bicycle convenience, but it's sort of outside the money system...