Lyon is the 2nd largest city in France (after Paris), with a population of 3 million if you include the surrounding urban area. As a result, it obviously needs a good transport system – in addition to the ubiquitous metros, buses and trams, the city came up with the great idea of putting bikes at the disposal of the public. Called Vélo’V, the scheme aims to reduce pollution and promote ‘healthy’ transport. There are more than 3000 bikes available from several hundred ‘bornes’, or automatic stations. Once you have bought a card for the service, you choose a PIN number and you can rent a bike whenever you want.
The cost is negligeable – you can get either a short term card or a long term card. In my case, since I’m only staying in Lyon for a few months, I use short term cards, which are valid for 1 week. They cost 1 euro and bike rental is free for the first half hour. Despite being the 2nd largest city in France, Lyon isn’t that big, meaning that you can get to most places within that time, meaning that for 1 euro/week you have nearly unlimited local transport. Compared to the cost of the other transport (1.10 euros for a student ticket valid for 1 hour on trams, metros, buses), it’s a pretty good deal. The price quickly rises after the first free half hour, but that is essentially to prevent people from stealing the bikes or appropriating them for prolonged periods (in other words, taking the bike home and using it for say a week). The scheme is popular with the Lyonnais (the inhabitants of Lyon) – in 2006 the 3000 bikes were used to cover a total of 6.4 million km.
Following the success of Vélo’V in Lyon, the authorities in Paris decided to follow suit with Vélib’. Unfortunately they’ve had a few more problems with stolen bikes and vandalism – the usual case of a few people ruining something good to the detriment of everyone else.
Assuming the scheme operators can get around the problems of stolen and vandalised bikes, hopefully the idea will spread to even more cities – it’s cheap, convenient and flexible; exactly what so many modes of public transport are lacking.
