PARIS BEGINS CITY-WIDE BIKE SHARING PROGRAM

Parisians are known for favoring revolutions over peaceful reform.

On the morning after Bastille Day 2007, Paris awoke to
thousands of new gleaming, pearl grey bicycles stationed
at former parking spaces all over the city. Within hours of
the system’s opening, the streets were filled with “freedom
bicycles.” Vélib, the new bicycle-based mass transit system,
proved that the revolution will be non-motorized.
By the 18th day, Vélib had logged one million rides. The
ubiquitous bikes are now an integral part of the city’s identity,
a symbol of Mayor Bertrand Delanoë and Deputy-Mayor
for Transportation Denis Baupin’s multifaceted efforts to
address traffic congestion, reduce air and sound pollution,
and revitalize the city’s public space.

SOURCE:  Sustainable Transport Fall 2007

The Vélib revolution began with doubling the amount of
cycleways in the City, making a fairly coherent and continuous
network. In early 2001, bicycling represented about one
percent of the 10.6 million trips made daily. Between 2001
and 2006, bicycle mode share increased by 48 percent while
keeping the number of crashes and injuries stable. Vélib is
expected to double or triple the number of daily bicycle trips
and to accelerate the rate of independent bicycling.
A few months ahead of the municipal elections, Vélib
is indeed “a success beyond our expectations” said Pascal
Cherki, Deputy Mayor for Sports.

How Vélib Works

Vélib is an important innovation over earlier city bike
sharing programs. Amsterdam famously put free bicycles
on the street in the 1960s, but they were not well maintained
and eventually all were stolen. Starting in the late
1990s, both JC Decaux and Clear Channel improved on this
model, with successful automated and credit card based programs
in Rennes, Amsterdam, Vienna, Lyons, Oslo, Brussels,
Stockholm, Helsinki, and Barcelona. The Vélib program in
Paris is however by far the largest and the most successful.
When it comes to bike sharing programs, size (and density)
matters.

Vélib requires the user to pick up and leave the bike at
automated, self-service bike stations. Users can either have
an annual membership or pay for short term subscriptions for
daily or weekly usage. A one-day subscription costs 1 euro, a
weekly subscription costs 5 euros and an annual membership
costs 29 euros.

Terminals at each station allow the purchase of a short
term subscription with a credit card, which gives you a subscriber
number and a password. Getting the bicycle then
only requires typing the number into the terminal any time
during your subscription period, selecting a bike stand number,
and stepping to the stand to unlock the bike. Annual
members use their smart card and just swipe it at the parking
stand instead of going to the terminal.

In addition to paying the subscription fee, short term users
must pay a security deposit of 150 euros, which is pre-authorized
on their credit card to help guarantee the return of the
bikes. This cuts back dramatically on theft.

Beyond this, for the first 30 minutes, the bicycle is free
to use. However, after that, usage costs are incurred (see
table). This system, including the pricing system, is designed
for short range, individual trips. As a result, in the first two
months of operation, 92 percent of the trips lasted less than
30 minutes.

The bike comes with its own lock for intermediate stops,
but when the user is finished, the bike has to be returned
to one of the Vélib stations. Because of this, there needs to
be enough stations that riders can readily find one. Vélib
opened in July with 10,648 bicycles and 750 stations; by
December of 2007, the system will have 20,600 bicycles and
1,451 stations – or one every 300 meters in central Paris.
If a station has no empty stand, 15 minutes of free time
can be added in order to reach the next station by swiping
the smartcard or logging into the terminal. The terminal also
shows the status of nearby stations and their current number
of empty slots.

Vélib stations tend to be located on converted parking
spaces. About 15 to 25 meters long, each station displaces
three to five parking spaces – or roughly 6,000 parking spaces
total by the time of full implementation.

Although the system was planned with about 70 percent
more parking stands than bikes in operation, the even distribution
of bikes and open stands at stations remains the main
challenge of the system. Optimizing station sizes and locations
presents an interesting challenge to system planners. In
Paris, the plan was done by the Atelier Parisien d’Urbanisme
(APUR). Many stations are near historical landmarks and
required approvals from the Department of Architecture and
Heritage. Because it was difficult to predict where pick-ups
and drop-offs would concentrate, the system operator has
staff with 20 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles dedicated
to shifting bikes from full to empty stations.

Vélib also has a support center on a barge that moves
between 12 landing points on the river. It features a shop
with 10 mechanics and ships the more seriously damaged
bikes daily to the main logistical base outside the city.

Vélib Bikes

Particular attention was given to a bike design that would
blend elegantly in the Paris landscape. At 22 kilos (compared
to about 18 kilos for a standard commercial bike), the
three-speed bike is not designed for speed, but to be substantial,
sturdy, and to handle some 18,000 kilometers in a year.
Particular attention was given to prevent taking on passengers.
Thus, there is no back rack, no horizontal frame bar,
and no child seat option.

The shifting, dynamo and brake systems are all located
inside wheel hubs. Control chips inside the bikes report on
their condition, as well as on tire pressure and on the bright
LED lights, directly to the central computer via the docking
stand. If a bike is defective, it remains automatically locked
on its stand (a red light appears) until the mechanic clears it.
Bikes returned to the stand for less than a minute stay locked
for inspection as well.

Weight, along with the distinctive design, was also
thought to discourage theft. However, this has been only
partially successful. As of September 10th, 250 to 300 bikes
had been stolen. “This is a lot” said a JC Decaux official.
Some of the bikes have been removed from the stations by
sawing through the arm that locks the bike to the rack. In
most cases, thieves simply took bikes improperly locked at
the stand by their users.

The Contract: The City and JC Decaux

Vélib is privately operated by SOMUPI, a joint venture
owned by JC Decaux, an outdoor advertising and street-furniture
multinational, and Publicis, a large advertising and
communications corporation. Most profits are derived from
billboard advertising.

SOMUPI is responsible for covering the entire cost of
implementing and managing Vélib, as well as any additional
fees. In return, it receives exclusive rights to provide
and operate the bus shelters, public announcement boards,
and other street furniture, which then serve as the physical
support for 1,628 lucrative advertising boards. The revenue
directly generated by Vélib subscription and rental fees,
expected to be in excess of 30 million euros a year, goes to
the city. If SOMUPI meets all contractual standards of good
operation of the system, it is entitled to revenue sharing of
12 percent of Vélib revenues plus payment by the city of an
amount equal to 12 percent of advertisement sales, i.e. about
10 million euros.

Since 1976, SOMUPI had held the street furniture and
billboards contract with the city. The contract was not supposed
to expire until 2010. However, in January 2006, Mayor
Delanoë decided to break it and tender a new one designed
to emulate the success of Velo’v, Lyon's bike share program,
also run by JC Decaux. Delanoë wanted at least 3,000 bikes
by the summer of 2007, and 6,000 by the end of the year. He
also demanded a 20 percent reduction in the 2,000 existing
billboards.

The top two bidding companies were SOMUPI and Group
for Paris, a joint venture led by Clear Channel, the Texasbased
global media conglomerate and number one outdoor
advertising company worldwide, and including major French
companies. Initially, Group for Paris made the winning bid in
November 2006 with a proposal for 14,000 bikes; SOMUPI’s
proposal was for just 7,500. However, SOMUPI attacked the
bidding process on technicalities and obtained its cancellation
at the Paris Administrative Court. In February 2007,
SOMUPI won the new bid by tripling its initial offer to
20,600 bikes and pledging to implement the first phase by
summer 2007. Group for Paris’s bid remained 14,000 bikes,
and offered a slower timetable.

No precise numbers regarding Vélib implementation and
operational costs have been published, but various public
statements by Decaux officials suggest that capital investment
and bike procurement amount to about 90 million
euros. Maintenance costs in Lyon’s similar bike-share program
are reportedly about 1,000 euros per bike per year.
On this basis, the total investment and operational cost of
Vélib over the 10-year contract is estimated to be about 300
million euros. Decaux separately said that he expected the 1,628 billboards
to earn 60 million euros per year for SOMUPI -- or about
600 million euros total.  The consortium also has
to pay for the billboards, street furniture, and up
to 32 million in space rental fees to the city.
Critics have raised the question of whether JC
Decaux’s back-lit billboards consume as much
fossil energy as is saved by people using Vélib over motorized forms of transport. The
billboards, however, pre-existed. While many of them are
being retrofitted with rolling ads mechanisms, the increased
energy consumption may be relatively marginal. A more
important question is whether the city should have paid for
Vélib directly out of its budget. It could then have either
12 percent of Vélib revenues plus payment by the city of an
amount equal to 12 percent of advertisement sales, i.e. about
10 million euros.

Since 1976, SOMUPI had held the street furniture and
billboards contract with the city. The contract was not supposed
to expire until 2010. However, in January 2006, Mayor
Delanoë decided to break it and tender a new one designed
to emulate the success of Velo’v, Lyon's bike share program,
also run by JC Decaux. Delanoë wanted at least 3,000 bikes
by the summer of 2007, and 6,000 by the end of the year. He
also demanded a 20 percent reduction in the 2,000 existing
billboards.

The top two bidding companies were SOMUPI and Group
for Paris, a joint venture led by Clear Channel, the Texasbased
global media conglomerate and number one outdoor
advertising company worldwide, and including major French
companies. Initially, Group for Paris made the winning bid in
November 2006 with a proposal for 14,000 bikes; SOMUPI’s
proposal was for just 7,500. However, SOMUPI attacked the
bidding process on technicalities and obtained its cancellation
at the Paris Administrative Court. In February 2007,
SOMUPI won the new bid by tripling its initial offer to
20,600 bikes and pledging to implement the first phase by
summer 2007. Group for Paris’s bid remained 14,000 bikes,
and offered a slower timetable.

No precise numbers regarding Vélib implementation and
operational costs have been published, but various public
statements by Decaux officials suggest that capital investment
and bike procurement amount to about 90 million
euros. Maintenance costs in Lyon’s similar bike-share program
are reportedly about 1,000 euros per bike per year.
On this basis, the total investment and operational cost of
Vélib over the 10-year contract is estimated to be about 300
million euros. Decaux separately said that he
expected the 1,628 billboards to earn 60 million
euros per year for SOMUPI -- or about
600 million euros total.  The consortium also has
to pay for the billboards, street furniture, and up
to 32 million in space rental fees to the city.
Critics have raised the question of whether JC
Decaux’s back-lit billboards consume as much
fossil energy as is saved by people using Vélib over motorized forms of transport. The
billboards, however, pre-existed. While many of them are
being retrofitted with rolling ads mechanisms, the increased
energy consumption may be relatively marginal. A more
important question is whether the city should have paid for
Vélib directly out of its budget. It could then have either
auctioned the advertising contract separately at a higher
price or simply cancelled it as an undesirable encroachment
on the public realm.

Local governments clearly like deals that make urban
amenities appear to have no cost to the tax-payers, a business
concept JC Decaux pioneered in the 1960s. In the case
of Vélib, the bidding process was so competitive that in
the end the city got a much better contract than it initially
thought. Also, with JC Decaux’s experience, SOMUPI was
able to implement Vélib on schedule and with only minimal
glitches.

At about the same time, Barcelona has shown that different
financing schemes are possible. The city pays 4.5 million
euros per year for the 3,000 bike-share program managed by
Clear Channel. The separate urban furniture and advertising
contract, operated by JC Decaux returns 11 to 18 million
euros per year.

Behind Vélib: The Paris Mobility Plan

Vélib is just one component of Paris’s new mobility plan.
When the Delanoë Administration came into office in 2001,
they took a sharp turn away from previous administrations.
They understood that new road construction just led to more
car trips, further degrading the urban environment. They set
out to scale back motorized traffic, focusing instead on revitalizing
local life and public spaces, by converting acres of
roadway and parking spaces into pedestrian space, bike lanes,
busways and tramways.

In the summer of 2002, the Quartier Verts (Green
Neighborhoods) program was the first initiative to reclaim
neighborhood streets for the community. Squares and plazas
were renovated, sidewalks widened, and new landscaping and
raised crosswalks were added. To slow traffic, street directions
were revised to carefully eliminate all through-routes, making
vehicles exit back onto the avenue from which they entered.
The legal speed limit was lowered to 30 km/h from 50 km/h.
On most of these slow speed, one-way streets, cyclists are
allowed to use the road in both directions.

A network of pedestrian-priority shared streets was also
created, where the legal traffic speed was lowered to 15
km/h. New low-floor microbus circulators were introduced
to improve local accessibility and connections to transit
stations. Free parking was eliminated altogether. Although
parking permits are issued to residents for a
nominal fee, they are only valid for parking
spaces in the immediate vicinity.

The Espaces Civilisés program was launched
to tame the heavy traffic that dominated
many of the wider boulevards and avenues.
Boulevard de Magenta was one of the first
to become a “civilized space.” Dubbed by
residents as the Magenta expressway, it had
endured traffic volumes up to 1,400 vehicles
per hour in each direction, frequent speeding,
and many fatalities at intersections. Noise and
pollution levels were among the highest in the
city.

Under the program, 24 million euros were
invested (about 260 euros per square meter)
into widening sidewalks from 4 to 8 meters,
planting trees, and building bikeways. Granite
separators were put in to protect a new dedicated
bus lane. To accommodate deliveries,
30 minute truck parking spaces were placed
on the curb-side of the bus lane. Intersections
were made safer with secured crosswalks, widened median
refuge islands and extended crossing phases for pedestrians.
New pavement, landscaping, and street furniture were added
to sidewalks and plazas. Businesses signed “charters of quality,”
harmonizing displays and signs and promoting good
public space practices.

While Paris regularly expands its Metro and recently
opened a new tram line, the administration is also building
a light BRT system, with 17 major lines in the City of Paris,
and 150 lines in the metropolitan area. The Mobilien system
has dedicated bus corridors, signal priority at intersections, and raised stations for rapid boarding and alighting from any door of the low-floor buses. Fare payment is mostly done by Navigo smart cards and enforced by roaming ticket inspectors.
The first three BRT lines opened between 2005 and
2006. Though bus ridership was disrupted during construction,
by the second half of 2006, ridership on new Mobilien
busways increased dramatically.

The city is also developing a new car sharing program,
with self service pick up stations similar to the Vélib system.
The city will be supplying three recently licensed car sharing
companies with parking spots in public garages and at
on-street stations. One car-sharing vehicle is estimated to
substitute 10 personal cars, and experience shows that users
tend to reduce their mileage by about 20 percent due to pricing
incentives.

These improvements and traffic restraint measures led to a
decrease in private vehicle traffic by 20 percent, trucks by 11
percent, and tourist buses by 11 percent between 2001 and
2006. The Metro received the biggest ridership increase, at
12 percent. With the completion of the first Mobilien corridors,
bus ridership is also now growing rapidly.
Over the same period, all indicators of air pollution
improved regularly, with the exception of summer ozone
levels. Six percent of the overall 32 percent reduction in
nitrogen oxides (NOx), as well as all 9 percent of the reduction
in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, were attributed to
the reduced number of cars and trucks in the city. Air quality
had strongly improved along the streets and avenues that
have been reorganized, with a reduction of 10 micrograms of
NOx per cubic meter on many streets. Injuries also decreased by 25 percent between 2001and 2005, in spite of a rapid
increase of motorized two-wheelers . Motorcyclists constitute
50 percent of road casualties in the city.

The Future

Mayor Delanoë is running for reelection in March 2008,
as is his Green Party coalition partner, the Deputy-Mayor
Baupin. They are opponents in the first round of the election,
and both are claiming credit for the legacy of their
mobility achievements. However, if they are re-elected, it
is probable that they will join in coalition again. Although
Baupin has occasionally been called names such as ‘Pol Pot’
and the ‘Khmer Vert’ by disgruntled motorists, this critique has largely fallen flat given the increasing interest in environmental
and climate change issues in opinion polls.
The administration has only been charging ahead. In
February 2007, it presented a 15-year sustainable Mobility
Plan which the Council of Paris approved for public hearings
and a final vote in 2008. The 2020 objectives of the
plan include: reducing traffic by 40 percent; reducing greenhouse
gas emissions by 60 percent; increasing transit capacity
by 30 percent; and raising non-automobile transportation
mode share from 78 percent to 83 percent.
The city has become a role model for sustainable transport.
Should the next administration receive a renewed
mandate to continue these policies, Paris would be able to
sustain their revolutionary efforts.