BTA volunteer à vélo

I've just returned from a two week trip to Paris, home of the famous and fashionable Vélib bike-sharing network that Portland's had its eye on for the past year. Mother, Brother and I traveled under the guise of "visiting family" but I successfully turned the trip into a mission of fact-finding, interviewing, and photo-taking of every bike related item in the city.

Maybe it's because Vélib is barely a year old, but I've never seen a city so in lust with its bicycles. It's hard not to notice 20,000 identical bikes spread between nearly 1500 stations around the city – that's about one station every 300 meters. And they're glamorous, these dozens of shiny gray bikes arranged in perfect rows on every street corner. Vélib is featured on billboards and postcards, and it's the newest subject of themed guides to the city. Vélib has become synonymous with, and inseparable from, the concept of bicycling in Paris.

Did I just see a grandmother on Velib cursing a taxi?

Actually riding Vélib turns some of that glamour into grittiness. The bikes are heavy, and traffic in Paris is truly terrifying. There seems to be a complete absence of any sort of enforced rule system, official or unspoken; lane markers are nonexistant, scooters weave in and out and between everyone else, and then there are the dreaded roundabouts: six-lane (in theory) free-for-alls with ten different entrances and exits, usually encircling a famous landmark like the Arc de Triomphe.

Paris claims 370 km of aménegemants cyclables, mostly found on the larger streets. Many are shared bike/bus lanes, separated from the rest of traffic by a symbolic white line. These sometimes run contraflow to one-way car traffic. There are also some bike-only lanes that are designated either by a white line or a raised curb. According to my bicycle map these streets aren't yet connected enough to form a cohesive network, so any ride is bound to involve contact with the rest of traffic.

But I'm told that traffic shouldn't be a deterrent. Aunt Virginie assures me that she's "way more scared to drive a car in Paris than to ride a bike."

Outsmarting the machine

Mother is convinced to come with me on our first ride – I've generously offered to pay for her one-euro day pass. One of the most attractive features of Vélib is how cheap it is. Frequent users pay 29 euros a year for a membership card, and visitors or infrequent users have the option of a 1 euro/one day or 7 euros/7 day pass. After the intial payment, you can check out a bike as many times as you want during the day, and the first 30 minutes of every checkout are free. Subsequent half-hour chunks are charged to your credit card on an expotentially increasing scale. (It seems that Parisians have eagerly accepted the challenge of never getting charged, ever. Should my ride approach the 30 minute mark, my cousins advised me, I must quickly find a station, return the bike, wait five minutes, and check it out again; or, if there is another Vélib station in sight, run over there and get a new bike.)
Aunt Virginie graciously lent me her Vélib member card for the week, and it truly made a huge difference. The card allowed me to bypass the machine that sold day passes and check out any bike simply by scanning the card at the bike's individual parking post. As it turns out, there's an even bigger problem for nonmembers - the machines accept Visa, but they can only read cards with a microchip ID. I'm not sure if it's typical of most American cards but my mom's and mine both use magnetic strip ID, so they were useless. I never figured out a way to get around this problem: you can't use cash to buy the pass because you must authorize a 150 euro deposit if the bike isn't returned, and searching the convoluted official website yielded no answers.

Finally, after tracking down a cousin who relinquished his card for the day, mom and I set off on our first ride. We followed a bike/bus lane on Boulevard Beaumarchais heading toward a bike-only lane on the Viaduc des Arts, a length of park blocks with an artisan market. It was a peaceful ride, perfect for mom, who doesn't normally ride a bicycle in the city but felt comfortable on the sturdy Vélib. Precisely 26 minutes into the ride we returned the bikes, had a quick espresso, and re-checked out the bikes so we could go home.

So, the thrifty Vélibiste can't embark on a leisurely tour of the city, but it's really ideal for most other situations. The Vélib station was closer to our apartment than the Métro, and I'm certain that many of the trips I made were just as quick, and definitely more enjoyable, than a ride on the hot and stinky Métro. After a late night out with my cousins, when the Métro had stopped running, I happily took Vélib rather than pay ten euros for a taxi. The bikes are equipped with a basket on the front and pedal-powered front and rear lights, so an unplanned bike ride is never a problem.

Je t'aime, Vélib

Vélib and Paris are perfect for each other, I realized. Uncle André, 60 years old, offered some really valuable insight as to why Parisians have adapted so well. An employee of the city of Paris, André commutes to work daily by bicycle. "Before Vélib I rode my own bike in the city, but bike theft is so prevalent here that it makes more sense to use Vélib. It saves me the hassle of lugging a bike up and down the stairs to my apartment, and then worrying about it while I work." (Non-Vélib bike parking is hard to find in Paris.)

"There is a Vélib station five minutes from my apartment, and one on the same corner as my office. Five or even ten minutes of walking is nothing for the majority of Parisians, who travel by public transport and walk at least that far to find the nearest Metro station," said André. And a bike commute is often faster and more direct than a crowded morning Metro ride with one or two line changes, not to mention cheaper.

"Vélib has changed mostly people who used to ride the bus or the Metro," said André. "No one who lives in Paris drives a car, so you don't really see a decrease in cars on the road. The taxis and tourist drivers are still there. But for people who live and work here it makes a huge difference."

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.