Hats off to bike-sharing

Wednesday, 3rd February 2010

Keith Austin wonders whether cities such as Sydney should brace themselves for an epidemic of head lice

One of the great global successes of the past five years has been the explosion of bike-sharing schemes, for which Paris can take much of the blame. Despite the well-publicised acts of vandalism and theft, the silver Vélib bicycles are as distinctive a part of the Parisian scene as boulangeries or the unrepentant smokers blowing their crap all over your croque at the outdoor cafes (an unexpected downside to the Europe-wide no-smoking-indoors legislation).

Purists will argue that Paris is a vélo voleur, having nicked the idea from Lyon (which started its Vélo’v bike-share scheme in 2005) but it was the launch of the Vélib in 2007 — with 20,000 bicycles spread across 1,500 bike docking stations — that proved it could be done successfully in a major city.

Arriving in Paris in February 2009 for a six-month stay I was surprised to find that the space-age Vélib stations were pretty much ubiquitous, and that swiping a membership card and taking a bicycle had become second nature to tourists and beautifully dressed, besuited Parisians alike.

Driven by new technologies, worries about global warming, the economic downturn, the myriad downsides to car ownership and the obvious health benefits, bike-sharing has become a phenomenon, with something like 160 schemes springing up worldwide — one of the latest being the Bixi scheme that started in Montreal last year and was an instant success. London’s madcap mayor ‘Bicycling Boris’ Johnson says he wants to start a ‘cycling revolution’ and to that end has pledged £111 million ($197 million) to put 6,000 bikes in 400 docking stations across the British capital this summer.

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