One Reason to Love Paris Even More...

[Fabrizio2]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 11:47am

Freewheeling in Paris
Courtesy of JCDecaux

From May 2007

By Alysha Brown

In an effort to help the City of Light go green, the French outdoor advertising company JCDecaux has partnered with city officials to launch the largest municipal bike-lending program in the world. "We’re responding to an increasing demand for environmentally friendly transport solutions," says co-CEO Jean-Charles Decaux. Look for the 20,600 Patrick Jouin-designed bicycles parked at 1,450 depots around major tourist sites; a staff of 400 Parisians maintains the inventory full-time. With similar initiatives already under way throughout Europe, the EU’s goal of reducing emissions by 20 percent in the next 13 years may be just a few pedals away.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/freewheeling-in-paris

[Guido Contini]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 11:48am

I DEFINITELY thought this was going to be another "OOPSIE" on the part of Paris Hilton.

Updated On: 4/22/07 at 11:48 AM

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 12:47pm

They are currently looking into this for San Francisco as well. Huge undertaking - but great idea! We also have a community car share program in San Francisco as well, and that is working out beautifully.

[pemberlee]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 12:55pm

In Geneva you can borrow free bike during the summer and leave them at designated places. Too bad that doesn't start until after I leave!

Oh and I expected a thread about Ms. Hilton as well.

[Greekmusicalfan]

Posted: 4/22/07 at 9:14pm

Thank God it's about the city ! I also thought that it was about her, but than my logic kicked in ! In order to love someone even more, you've got to love him in the first place and I don't know anyone who does LOL

[Elphaba]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 10:10am

cheeze, in SF, don't you think many would be stolen? Or in any major American city for that matter.
Where they do this, it seems not to happen....Scandinavia, etc

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 3:42pm

True - Americans are greedy thieving pigs - but the program that is being worked out here (as well as the car program) is each participant has to be signed up and in order to borrow a bike, you enter your pin code and the identification # from the bike before the stall is unlocked. Once unlocked - you take the bike, then upon return you enter the same information to lock it again and the system knows the bike is accounted for at all times.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/23/07 at 4:44pm

Do they do that bike-sharing thing in Copenhagen? When I was there, I saw hundreds of unlocked bicycles at the train station and wondered if it was something like that.