Velib bicycles for hire in Montmartre Paris France
Vélib’ (French: vélo libre or vélo liberté, English: free bicycle or bicycle freedom) is a public bicycle rental programme in Paris, France. The initiative was pushed by Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë from the French Socialist Party. The system was launched on 15 July 2007. Ten thousand bicycles were introduced to the city with 750 automated rental stations each with fifteen or more bikes/spaces. This number has since grown to 20,000 bicycles and 1,450 stations, roughly one station every 300 metres throughout the city centre, making Vélib’ the largest system of its kind in the world. The system is financed by the JCDecaux advertising corporation, in return for the city of Paris signing over the income from a substantial portion of the on-street advertising hoardings. JCDecaux won the contract over a rival bid from Clear Channel. The robust grey bicycles were produced by the French bicycle company Mercier, in Hungary and are repaired by JCDecaux. They are three-speed bicycles, each weighing kilograms, have always-on LED lighting powered by a fronthub dynamo, a locking system and a front bicycle basket. Other such schemes are operational in other cities, using different models. In Copenhagen, a non-profit foundation has operated a free open access bike scheme seasonally since 1995 and six German cities are served by Call a Bike which is run by Deutsche Bahn. In Luxembourg. JCDecaux is operating bicycles called Vel'oh, the bicycles and payment system are based on Vélib’, but with some design differences. A similar scheme, also provided by JCDecaux, began operations in Dublin in September 2009. Perhaps one of the original electronically managed systems was Bikeabout (1996) at Portsmouth University, from which many lessons were learned.
Size: 3414px × 5100px
Location: Montmartre Paris France Europe
Photo credit: © eddie linssen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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