I shall call today's post "Random Velib' Data". In a recent email exchange with a Paris official, I learned about the following points regarding trips and subscriptions. There are a few surprising notes here.
Number of trips:
- In 6 months (July 15, 2007 - January 15, 2008) there have been 13.4 million trips or about 75,000 trips/day.
- Trips are highly weather-dependent. When the weather is cold and wet, Velib’ has 30,000 trips/day. When the weather is nice, Velib’ can have up to 140,000 trips/day.
- A large percentage of the overall trips are for commuting purposes.
- 25% of trips are from 9PM to 3AM. (Other transit modes run less frequently during these hours, so more reliance is placed on Velib'.)
- The average trip length is 20 minutes. This is about a 3-mile trip in an urban environment with traffic signals and stop signs.
- Only 8% of trips are greater than 30 minutes.
Number of subscriptions:
- In 6 months, about 205,000 tickets for weekly subscriptions for $7.50 and 2.5 million daily tickets for $1.50 have been bought. There is huge tourist demand.
photo credit: austinevan
3 comments:
Of course I cannot contest these figures.
But remember : we have two worlds in PARIS
-The world of empty stations (roughly northern PARIS)
-The world of full stations (roughly southern PARIS)
So we don't have really the choice.
Add, too , lots of sabotage : on your OWN photo the velib is Out Of Order (flat tyre).
However a new good point . We can now grab a bike from any station around town , ride for 29 mn (or less than ½ h) park it at any other station and take it again without waiting.
Here's my disappointing experience: unable to use the bikes here because the credit card I have does not have a chip..it is an American credit card, not European. This is what I was told at the Office Tourisme at Avenue Pyramides. So then I asked if it were possible to buy a pass and was told: no. So unless I'm sadly mistaken, this thing is off limits to most tourists. I have a USAA credit card, accepted from Johannesburg to Paris to Brussels to NYC..but I'm SOL here. Sad, because I was really aching to use these bikes. Anyone come up with a different answer on this?
Same experience. I cannot use the bike. I only brought my visa and master card. Apparently American Express will work without chip, but I left it back home in the US. Very disappointing.
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