In a document titled "Vélib’ à Paris", useful statistics are provided about Paris in its efforts of becoming a worldclass bicycle city. Some interesting numbers :- 231 miles (371 km) of cycle tracks (physically separated bike lanes) in 2006, and
- 1.63% of all trips were made by cyclists in 2006.
They'll need a new scale for this graph for 2007 as the mode share could be as high as, dare I say 15%, with the new 20,600 bikes on the street. These baseline numbers will be helpful in determining just how successful bike-sharing has been for the city. As I've mentioned in earlier posts on The Bike-sharing Blog, Lyon experienced a 400-500% increase in bike model share in 2 1/2 years with Velo'v and Barcelona experienced a 100% increase in three months with Bicing.
Paul: Ooh, great data! Is there any baseline data for auto, transit, walking, or other modes? I think we could stand most to gain by highlighting how bike sharing affects the overall balance.
ReplyDeleteClayton Lane
Deputy Executive Director
PhillyCarShare
I agree. I don't have data on this from Paris, but I'm sure it's available.
ReplyDeleteAfter two full months, hereafter my own feeling of Velib , the Paris Bike Sharing System.
ReplyDelete- Most people utterly approve the notion
- Velib really increased the use of bikes : non-velib bikes are now much more numerous.
- The Velibs are quite well used and by a lot of very different people
- If you hold an annual card (only 29 € ~ 40$ ) you collect your bike directly from the stand : very very simple. Otherwise...quite long. The Velib card allows you to make an unlimited number of free journeys of 30 minutes each. After 30 minutes you drop it at a station ; you wait a full 2 minutes ; and you can take it again.
- Of course cabs and buses are very upset to see the number of people using bikes and the Mayor will have to do something to soften the relationship (taxis buses and bikes share the same lanes)
- There is sometimes a problem to find a bike but full points are WORSE. Very annoying to go from point to point looking for a free spot. It is said that when you arrive to a full station you can log into the station with your card ; it would recognize that the stalls are full and give you an extra 15 minutes to find an alternate station . BUT the checking is long and boresome and the location software very vague.
- The "Full Stations Syndrom" intensifies the users' complaints about the lot of persistent bugs of the system ( ...it seems as if every station has its own time ; so..plan rather 25 minutes instead of 30 ; The stand sometimes does not identify the bike: so you discover some hours laters that you are still owner of the bike...)
We DO NOT UNDERSTAND the lack of partnership with big french manufacturers in order to prevent increasing vandalism (MICHELIN for tyres) neither the lack of an official Velib Forum which would have converted complaints into suggestions.
You may just have a look to unofficial ones for example forum-velibwith an interesting post named Liens/Links