Despite Abuse and Theft, Parisians Have Taken 138 Million Rental Bicycle Rides; Cars Are Next

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

Your humble author is TTAC’s resident cycling enthusiast, as shown in the eminently regrettable photo above which can best be titled “35-Year-Old Man Takes Mountain Bike To Skatepark For No Good Reason.” When I was younger, I had unveiled contempt for people who drove somewhere when they could ride. Three knee surgeries and a child later, I’m not so sure. Still, cycling is gaining momentum across Europe in precisely the same way that the economy isn’t. The public-bicycle scheme in Paris, Velib, now profitably shares 23,000 public bicycles across a subscriber network of 225,000 people — and the electric-auto-sharing service which has been operating for over half a year now looks to be headed for similar success. The implications regarding private and public property raised by both services are worth discussing.

As a cyclist, I considered my bicycles to be more sacred than my cars. Why would I ride some horrible public bike when I could ride my own? The Velib experience, which offers 45-pound rental bikes, no doubt inspires similar repugnance among French roadies. Furthermore, the adage about partying and rentals appeared to hold true in Paris. According to Eurasia Review’s excellent article on the subject:

While most Parisians snubbed the heavy public bicycles (weighing 23 kg), others destroyed or stole them. During the first year, 8,000 Vélib’ bicycles disappeared and another 16,000 were vandalized, according to official figures… But despite it all, when Vélib’ marked its fifth anniversary on Jul. 14, it was also able to celebrate its undeniable success: in five years, 138 million people have used the 23,000 rental bicycles, and the system currently has 225,000 subscribers out of a total urban population of 2.3 million… In 2011, Velib’ achieved profitability and is fully expected to yield profits again in 2012.

The implications are interesting: when a nation which is famous for individuality, and cycling snobbery, puts 138 million asses on rental seats over the course of five years, something is changing. The notion of personal transport is, perhaps, increasingly falling victim to class resentments, European economic immobility, official indifference towards urban theft and abuse of property, and the simple but irresistible force of raw convenience.

The Autolib scheme takes this a step further, to include electric cars. Pay between four and eight Euros and receive a fully-“fueled” electric car for half an hour. If you consider that the average new-car price is almost thirty grand now, and the payments on such an item, plus reasonable insurance and fuel fees, would cover perhaps fifty to eighty hours a month in a loaner car — more than two hours per day — it’s no wonder that the Autolib scheme is gaining momentum.

This isn’t a unique idea — Zipcar offers conventionally-powered cars for similar money in cities across the world — but its progress is worth watching. Every happy Autolib customer is one less customer for a conventional mass-market automobile. He or she is also a vote against many of the things TTAC readers enjoy about cars: speed, freedom, unlimited personal mobility, the choice of everything from interior color to camshaft specification. That is, of course, unless people are stupid enough to let you rent their Corvettes.

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • Murilee Martin Murilee Martin on Jul 25, 2012

    There is what appears to be a fairly successful rent-a-public-bike program here in Denver. The bikes are big heavy things (which isn't a big deal in the urban core of Denver, which is mostly fairly flat), painted bright red, and I see quite a few people riding them.

  • Safe as milk Safe as milk on Jul 27, 2012

    they were supposed to be installing thousands of these bike rental kiosks in downtown manhattan this summer. the project go delayed because of a "software glitch." the ciy & national newspapers are all excited about it but the neighborhood broadsheets aren't so sure. http://tinyurl.com/cf45cs5 the prices are very reasonable but they go up quickly, if you keep the bike for more than 45 minutes. it doesn't make much sense for recreational biking to keep a bike for 45 mins., so i just spent $400 on a new bike which i will drag up the elevator in my building and park on my tiny terrace. ny is really trying with this bike thing but we have a long way to go. the bike lanes are terrible. some are just faded painted lines that are ignored by everyone including the city buses. the island is ringed with a great bike path and that's the only place i would allow anyone in my family to ride one. on the car front, the zip car thing is very interesting but 2 problems. one: they are always booked far in advance. two: since nobody checks the cars between rentals, you never are sure about the cleanliness of what you are getting. still it costs me $425 to park my car each month so there is a lot to be said for renting even a dirty car. p.s. jack, where is the f86 track video?

  • SCE to AUX I've never been teased by a bumper like that one before.
  • 3SpeedAutomatic R&T could have killed the story before it was released.Now, by pulling it after the fact, they look like idiots!! What's new??
  • Master Baiter "That said, the Inflation Reduction Act apparently does run afoul of WTO rules..."Pfft. The Biden administration doesn't care about rules. The Supreme Court said they couldn't forgive student load debt; they did it anyway. Decorum and tradition says you don't prosecute former presidents; they are doing it anyway. They made the CDC suspend evictions though they had no constitutional authority to do so.
  • 1995 SC Good. To misquote Sheryl Crow "If it makes them unhappy, it can't be that bad"
  • 1995 SC The letters on the hatch aren't big enough. hard pass
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