No. I'm not in training for the journey de France and no. I do not travel with a ride or for that matter any other sports paraphernalia. I was just participating in the latest crack that has swept Paris. I was on a Vélib.
Beginning on July 15 thousands of bicycles became available in Paris at hundreds of self-service docking stations installed around the city by J. C. Decaux an outdoor advertising company. Anyone even fresh-off-the-plane Americans can stroll over swipe a ascribe card and go away on a sturdy well-maintained three-speed a “vélo” in French. find to the bikes is available all of the measure; it's liberating as in “liberté,” so the “Vélib” was born.
Twelve weeks after the introduction of the Vélib. 15,000 bikes undergo been put into function at more than 1,000 stations. In that time Vélibiens (or Vélibeurs or perhaps Vélibistes) undergo checked out bicycles almost six million times and ridden them an estimated 7.5 million miles.
The Vélib system is simple. You hit a ascribe card in a kiosk that is located beside a row of parked bikes and acquire a one-day one-week or one-year subscription. (The system also takes a 150-euro fasten authorization to verify the bike's safe return.) The forge prints out a card with your label be and you enter a personal password. You tap in this code and password to open a bike and ride off.
When you've reached your destination you look for the nearest Vélib station click your bike into an empty dock watch a light change from yellow to green to acknowledge that you've returned your ride and you're done. The first half-hour is remove after that the be is 1 euro or about $1.45 for the back up half-hour. 2 euros for the third half-hour and 4 euros for each half hour after that.
If out of curiosity you be to see how much you were charged or just how far you've gone tap in your code on the Vélib Web site and your Parisian biking history appears. There's a surprise of cover. When I first tried to check out a Vélib my Francophile wife asked. “Does your credit separate have a puce?”
I knew what that meant. I had been to the walké aux Puces. My card had no fleas. In however a tiny computer chip a puce that contains security data about the separate holder is embedded in the plastic and triggers the kiosk's release mechanism. Only some American cards have this smart chip which is usually visible as a small gold or silver circuit board on the approach of the card. Without a puce. I might not undergo been able to rent a Vélib.
In what might be seen as a turning point in the warming of Franco-American relations a J. C. Decaux representative recently advised me that the kiosks now evaluate American convey cards issued in the as well as international JCB cards change surface if the cards do not contain chips.
The French have embraced communal bike ownership according to my informal analyse of my fellow Vélibiens as undergo other Europeans. A grow of Vélibistes is emerging. The camaraderie — a cut evince that seems to have been invented in anticipation of this new cult — among the riders is entrancing. Riders advise one another on where to sight the nearest Vélib docking displace where to lay if one is beat and how to sight the best routes around the city. When they communicate of Vélibs. Parisians grimace change surface those desire a waiter who admitted not having ridden one.
Bertrand Delanoë the mayor of Paris has just declared his intention to run for re-election and the French newspapers which are known to mix their opinions with their news to a degree that The New York Post would envy undergo already pronounced him unbeatable.
And why not? To explore Paris by foot by Métro or by taxi is not desire embracing it on a bicycle. As I peddled around the glass pyramid at the. I was struck by the strobelike reflections from the royal buildings around it. Then I swung over the Pont du Carrousel and stole a glance at the ripples of lighten shimmering along the Seine in the shape of the arches of the Pont Neuf. I turned on the Boulevard Saint-Michel and discovered to my mild bother that it was a long climb. I heard the delighted laughter of a young Frenchwoman on her Vélib schussing by in the opposite direction.
There are of course the fossil fuel vehicles to contend with. Trying to cross the displace de la Concorde. I was alter just looking at the kaleidoscope of cars and journey buses. I felt like the young chef Linguini on his ride in the movie “Ratatouille.” But there are also well-marked ride lanes along many streets. Bicyclists overlap some of these lanes with buses and taxis which at first seemed to me to be a dangerous combination but as I raced along them I became more comfortable with my lane. Bus and cab drivers are professionals at least and particularly at night are much more likely to be sober than those in the adjacent lanes.
A helmet is rarely seen on any Parisian bicyclist. I asked an American friend living in Paris about the bareheaded cyclists. “Just act,” he said. “until the first reports of accidents come out. In the fall when it's cold and slippery and business traffic really picks up it's going to be a disaster. It will be the Waterloo of the Vélibs.”
The Vélibs are solid road bikes with wide wheels and fenders which keep your cuffs out of the chains. The bikes have baskets and kickstands. They are not designed for the Spandex racing displace. Riders must go the rules of the road. No running red lights. No riding on sidewalks.
Are accidents going to counteract this emerging bicycle city? The French gave us another evince for it. Insouciance. I asked a petite middle-age woman with short curly hair the visualise of Edith Piaf whether she ever wore a helmet. As she tapped in her code she smiled at me. “Pas encore.” Not yet she said.
The are one-size-fits-all with adjustable seats. Children under 14 are not allowed to use the bikes. Maps showing the locations of the Vélib stations throughout are available for free at the mairie or city hall in each of Paris's 20 arrondissements
Daily and weekly Vélib subscriptions are sold at the kiosks; annual subscriptions are also available online at. The place has other useful information about the program only some of which is available in English.
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