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Easy bike hire for Londoners



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 9th 07, 11:21 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling
spindrift
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Default Easy bike hire for Londoners

Mayor wants London to copy Paris bike rentals By Ross Lydall, Evening
Standard 09.08.07 Add your view



Ken Livingstone is considering a plan to offer thousands of bikes for
rent for short trips across central London.

The Mayor is keen to copy the Parisian idea of providing 10,000 self-
service cycles that can be unlocked from racks and used for up to 30
minutes at a time.

He saw the scheme for himself first hand when he joined the city's
mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, for the final stage of the Tour de France
last month and has now asked Transport for London officials to
investigate.

Since being introduced in the French capital three weeks ago, the
Vélib (short for free or freedom-bikes in French) project has
surprised cynics with its popularity.

The heavy grey bikes are available from 750 places, many near rail and
metro stations, for a one euro (65p) fee for each half-hour of
cycling. They have been hired 1.2 million times - each being used six
times a day.

Subscribers to the scheme must pay ¤29 (£20) a year, give their credit
card details and leave a ¤150 credit card deposit. They are given a
card to unlock the bikes from automated stations.

The Mayor, who boasts that cycling has increased by 83 per cent in
London since he came to power, with about 450,000 journeys a day, is
keen to maintain the momentum of travellers switching to two wheels.

He is holding a London Freewheel event next month, which will close
miles of the capital's streets on a Sunday to encourage nervous
cyclists back on their bikes, and sees it as one way of reducing
emissions and improving the health of Londoners.

TfL has reportedly been asked to look at a city-wide scheme that would
link the several small-scale ventures already in place and roll them
out on a grander scale.

Former cabbie Bernie Hanning co-founded OYbikes three years ago, which
operates from locations including Hammersmith, Fulham and West
Kensington. Cyclists hire a bike free for 30 minutes after paying an
initial £10 registration fee and phone the OYBike call centre to get
the code to unlock the bike. Another scheme in Tower Hamlets
encourages employers with tax benefits to provide pooled bikes for
staff.

Dave Holladay, a veteran cycling enthusiast who advises the CTC, the
national cycling organisation, welcomed the large-scale scheme. But he
said previous attempts had failed due to the opposition of rail
companies to provide space for bike racks.

He told The Times: "It takes no more than 15 minutes to get to any
central London terminus by bike, so there could be huge benefits for
the city." However, in Paris, commuters from high-level areas such as
Montmartre have taken to riding the bikes downhill to work but not the
tough return journey. Vandals have also damaged bikes.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/a...als/article.do

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  #2  
Old August 9th 07, 11:32 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling
spindrift
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Default Easy bike hire for Londoners

In case of theft, a deposit's paid on the card so if you're registered
as the last user you get billed I suppose.

I can't think of many places in The City for racks to go. Plus, you
can walk from one end of Paris to the other fairly quickly- I remeber
a DW when we walked from the Eiffel Tower to the hotel in The Marais.
Couldn't do that in London- and say a rack is in The City, would the
others be way out in Zone 3 or just around the West End?



  #3  
Old August 9th 07, 11:59 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling
[email protected]
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Default Easy bike hire for Londoners

spindrift wrote:
in Paris, commuters from high-level areas such as
Montmartre have taken to riding the bikes downhill to work but not the
tough return journey.


I wonder if the scheme could be enhanced to give you a discount off
your annual fee for taking a bike from a low-level to a high-level
area.

Rob

  #5  
Old August 9th 07, 12:15 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
spindrift
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Posts: 1,885
Default Easy bike hire for Londoners

The French version:

The local authority in Paris has deposited 20,000 heavy-duty bicycles
in 750 or so special racks around the city and anyone who wants one
simply swipes his or her ordinary travel card and pedals off wherever
they want to go.

The bike does not have to be returned to the same pick-up point - you
can take a bike from a rack near the Eiffel Tower, cycle to the
Pantheon and leave it in the nearest Velib stand there.

Mathieu Fierling, the deputy director of the scheme, believes it will
suit Parisians and tourists alike.

Bicycles will just be very useful for those people going to do some
shopping or visiting friends, not far from home, but most of the time
when you use the car it's for a long trip so that's the reason why it
will not solve at all the traffic problem in Paris

Christian Gerondeau
President of federation of auto clubs
"We've set things up so that the same card can be used for public
transport and for Velib. You can set up a subscription for just one
day or for a whole week and the subscription fee is minimal - one euro
($1.38; £0.68) to anyone who wants a one-off go or 29 euros ($40; £20)
for a year's subscription."

The Velib scheme is aimed at people who are making short journeys.

The first half hour of pedalling time is absolutely free but, if you
fail to return the bike after 30 minutes, you get charged an extra
euro and the penalties go up the later you are.





Paris city hall expects to have about 20,000 regular Velib users by
the end of the year and plans to double the amount of Velib stations
dotted around Paris.




A travel card will be used to hire the bikes

The bikes do not come with cycling helmets but Mathieu Fierling
insists safety is a priority for the Paris authorities.

"The city council has launched a big campaign on bike safety. Every
subscriber to the Velib scheme will receive a leaflet with safety
advice. There have also been big efforts over the last few years to
set up cycle routes around the city. We hope that all this means there
will be as few accidents as possible."

But can the Parisians be persuaded by pedal power?

The Tour de France marks out the French as a cycling-loving nation but
in Paris, a city of two million people - and nearly 12 million in the
metropolitan area - only 150,000 own bikes.

The Velib scheme has already worked well in Lyon.


  #6  
Old August 9th 07, 01:40 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Jon has moved !
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Default Easy bike hire for Londoners

On 9 Aug, 13:15, spindrift wrote:
The French version:

snip

That article dated from the days before the launch and was similar to
one the Times published in the UK. Both had a relatively negative take
on the idea and included the key quote from the president of the Paris
Auto Club. The evidence to date is that despite a few teething
problems (Certain stands are frequently full and it can be necessary
to hunt for an empty space) the system is popular. The popular
estimates are that 2/3rds of the bikes seen on the streets of Paris
are Vélib ones. Assuming that existing bike owners aren't choosing to
leave theirs at home, that equates to a substantial increase in
cycling. It remains to be seen how that lasts.

Jon


 




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