would this work in the uk ?

northernneil

having just honeymooned in Paris I was seriously impressed with the Velib system in the city. If you dont know its basically a free bike system where you can pick up and drop off a bike at loads of different places across the city. I guessed that about 3-4 in every 10 bikes in Paris were these Velib bikes - loads of people were using them from businessmen to students.

Could this work in UK ? Certainly flat places like Cambridge, York and Oxford and London ???

http://www.velib.paris.fr/

hopper1

northernneil wrote:

having just honeymooned (and shaved my sack! ) in Paris I was seriously impressed with the Velib system in the city. If you dont know its basically a free bike system where you can pick up and drop off a bike at loads of different places across the city. I guessed that about 3-4 in every 10 bikes in Paris were these Velib bikes - loads of people were using them from businessmen to students.

Could this work in UK ? Certainly flat places like Cambridge, York and Oxford and London ???

http://www.velib.paris.fr/

Fixed that for you....!

andyp

Boris obviously thinks it will;

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/12444.aspx

LangerDan

Dublin has been running a similar system since last September, with about 450 bikes for rent from 40 stations around the city. It got off to a fairly rocky start with several accidents -including one fataility, IIRC - as many of the people using them hadn't ridden a bike for years before renting one and mixing it with the city traffic.

I think with most of these set-ups, theft and vandalism are the big ongoing problems - Paris had over 15,000 bikes damaged and 8,000 stolen in 2 years.

northernneil

hopper1 wrote:

northernneil wrote:

having just honeymooned (and shaved my sack! ) in Paris I was seriously impressed with the Velib system in the city. If you dont know its basically a free bike system where you can pick up and drop off a bike at loads of different places across the city. I guessed that about 3-4 in every 10 bikes in Paris were these Velib bikes - loads of people were using them from businessmen to students.

Could this work in UK ? Certainly flat places like Cambridge, York and Oxford and London ???

http://www.velib.paris.fr/

Fixed that for you....!

sacks.... I have 2 of them

nasahapley

LangerDan wrote:

I think with most of these set-ups, theft and vandalism are the big ongoing problems - Paris had over 15,000 bikes damaged and 8,000 stolen in 2 years.

Surely not?! I've been lead to believe that the French 'understand cycling', and have the utmost respect for the bike both as a means of getting around and as a symbol of freedom and of the very essence of what it is to be French. Maybe it was tourists who nicked and damaged them all!

But yes, as AndyP says, London is going to get a similar scheme; overall a pretty good idea I reckon.

Stewie Griffin

Is it really free if the taxpayer has to fork out $500 per vandalised bike?

"Due an unexpectedly high rate of vandalism compared to the Lyon system, the Paris City Council has agreed to pay $500 per bicycle needing replacement, which is expected to cost up to $2 million per year."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9lib'

Im not being difficult, I would like to see something similar here but if a cycling city like Paris is suffering from the bikes being vandalised what chance have we got in London?

geoff_ss

There was report on radio 4 earlier this week that the bikes in the Paris system were being vandalised and the cost of replacement was very high. Sad really because it's such an excellent idea.

I bet there aren't many of the bikes in Montmartre at the top of the hill - at least not many ridden there. I bet they have to keep carting them up so people can ride back to the river

Geoff

beverick

LangerDan wrote:

Dublin has been running a similar system since last September, with about 450 bikes for rent from 40 stations around the city. It got off to a fairly rocky start with several accidents -including one fataility, IIRC - as many of the people using them hadn't ridden a bike for years before renting one and mixing it with the city traffic.

I think with most of these set-ups, theft and vandalism are the big ongoing problems - Paris had over 15,000 bikes damaged and 8,000 stolen in 2 years.

When I was there in October a coach had just wrecked a row of them near at Mountjoy Park......

Bob

Nuggs

northernneil wrote:

sacks.... I have 2 of them

You have two scrotbags? Freak!

gabriel959

Stewie Griffin wrote:

Is it really free if the taxpayer has to fork out $500 per vandalised bike?

"Due an unexpectedly high rate of vandalism compared to the Lyon system, the Paris City Council has agreed to pay $500 per bicycle needing replacement, which is expected to cost up to $2 million per year."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9lib'

Im not being difficult, I would like to see something similar here but if a cycling city like Paris is suffering from the bikes being vandalised what chance have we got in London?

It might be that the crime rate in Paris is worse than London. Why couldn’t that be the case?

cedargreen

The Paris scheme doesn't provide free bikes- you have to pay to use them, though it's quite cheap. And £2m per year to replace stolen/ damaged bikes probably isn't that much in the great scheme of things. Despite problems, the Paris sheme seems to be a success- it has certainly increased cycling in the city.
There are some doubts about whether it will work as well in London, in addition to the obvious theft/ vandalism issues. The bike rental scheme will be in zone 1, but hardly anyone lives in zone 1, unlike Paris, which means lower demand for short trips to work or for shopping. The biggest potential demand would be from commuters using them to get from major train stations to work, and back again in the evening, but this would mean thousands of bikes used only twice a day. So supplies of rental bikes at main stations will be limited, at least initially. How many tourists/ visitors will want to tackle the cut and thrust of London traffic is debatable.
But Rome wasn't built in a day, and making London a city fit for cycling won't happen overnight. I think the cycle scheme is worth supporting- it will almost certainly have teething problems and the Daily Fail etc will be looking for excuses to brand it a waste of time and money etc.

desweller

If I recall correctly the vandalism consisted largely of teenagers executing street trials type manoeuvres and breaking the bikes in the process. In London I imagine it would consist of throwing them into the river or stripping the wheels and tyres off them.

volvicspar

LangerDan wrote:

I think with most of these set-ups, theft and vandalism are the big ongoing problems - Paris had over 15,000 bikes damaged and 8,000 stolen in 2 years.

Did they check to see if around 23,000 Brits visited and hired them during this time ? :shock:

rake

the ones in lodon dont get used,

pneumatic

the scheme in St Andrews ten or so years ago resulted in all the bikes being nicked within a week.

Also, the scheme in Lille in France folded two years ago because it was not economically viable.

It is a brilliant idea, but it is not foolproof.

hopper1

northernneil wrote:

hopper1 wrote:

northernneil wrote:

having just honeymooned (and shaved my sack! ) in Paris I was seriously impressed with the Velib system in the city. If you dont know its basically a free bike system where you can pick up and drop off a bike at loads of different places across the city. I guessed that about 3-4 in every 10 bikes in Paris were these Velib bikes - loads of people were using them from businessmen to students.

Could this work in UK ? Certainly flat places like Cambridge, York and Oxford and London ???

http://www.velib.paris.fr/

Fixed that for you....!

sacks.... I have 2 of them

TWO sacks :shock: .....Do you have 4 nutz?
Or is your real name Santa?

rake

i think he has piles.

Ollieda

OyBike http://www.oybike.com/oybike/cms.nsf/Home tried doing the hire scheme in London. Unfortunately it just didn't work, it offered free usage for 30mins then not that expensive rental afterwards. We had them here in Cheltenham aswell but they've gone now, they said not enough people were using them and they weren't getting enough from advertising (had a pannier type rack on the back with small billboard style adverts) to keep the scheme running. It's a shame as I was what they called a "sponsored rider" meaning I used it all the time that I didn't have to pay!

I thought it worked really well for Cheltenham as they had hire points on all the uni campuses so campus to campus travel was free and faster on the bike compared to the bus service! Oh well.

They are still running in Reading and Cardiff so theres some hope for them yet.

hopper1

rake wrote:

i think he has piles.

:shock: dangleberries :shock: ....

Sirius631

If sufficient cycle parking was provided I think that people would use their own bikes more, rather than opting for hire bikes. Of course people would have to have a bike and the ability to bring it to where they need to use it. I will worry about the road skills of the people who would be encouraged to use the Velib system in London.

In Walsall we have a couple of sets of bike racks at opposite ends of the pedestrianised zone, instead of several sets along a street. If you want to use them you would be wasting a lot of time walking back to your bike. It doesn't look like they've considered the utility that bike use can bring. They treat cycle parking like they do car parking, by providing discrete parking locations where you leave the bike and become a pedestrian.