PARIS - I pedaled past Notre Dame Cathedral, shifted to third gear and cruised down scenic Quai Voltaire, which runs along the left bank of the Seine. I stopped at an automated bicycle station, docked my rented bike and walked a couple of blocks to the Musee d'Orsay. After a three-hour foray into priceless art, I returned to the station, removed another bike, rode down Boulevard St.
Germain and docked across the street from Cafe de Flore.
Following lunch at the fabled Paris eatery, I returned to the station, selected my third bicycle of the day and rode across the river to Place de la Bastille.
Thanks to Velib, getting around Paris is as easy as un, deux, trois.
A hybrid term derived from velo (bicycle) and liberte (freedom), Velib is Mayor Bertrand Delanoe's latest effort to combat traffic congestion and turn Paris into a bicycle-happy green zone.
On July 15, City Hall unveiled 10,600 three-speed bicycles at 750 automated stations aroundtown. The curbside stations - there's one every 900 feet or so - allow users to remove a bicycle, ride to any Paris destination and return the bike to a nearby station. By the end of 2007 a total of 21,600 bicycles will be available at 1,451 stations.
Patterned after the Velo'v bike commuting program in Lyon, the Paris Velib system is equally brilliant. Simply walk up to the computerized pillar at any Velib station and use your credit card to sign up. A one-day subscription costs 1 euro ($1.34).
Seven-day stints go for 5 euros ($6.74), and one-year subscriptions - available only to locals - cost 29 euros ($39).
After completing the simple sign-up procedure, you'll receive a six-digit subscriber number.
Punch in the number along with your four-digit pin code. Press the button on the appropriate bike attachment point and voila!
A beep indicates that your bike can be removed. Simply adjust the seat, place your belongings in the wire basket and you're ready to roll.
During the first half-hour the bike rental is free. The second half-hour costs 1 euro.
The third half-hour is 2 euros
($2.70). The fourth half-hour
- and every half-hour thereaf
ter - costs 4 euros ($5.39).
The increasingly steep half
hourly charges are meant to
discourage riders from keeping
a bike for long periods. Built for
endurance rather than speed,
the bulky 48-pound Velib bikes
are designed for short com
mutes by successive riders in a
given day. It's cheaper to rent a
bike from a local bicycle shop
if you plan to ride continuously
all day.
Paris boasts 230 miles of
dedicated bike paths, desig
nated bike lanes and bus lanes
that are open to bikes. Rather
than scuttle underground in the
gloomy Paris Metro, I prefer to
pedal above ground from one
destination to the next - drop
ping off a bike and picking up
another one along the way.
In fact, Velib can be a life
saver in the wee hours of the
morning. When the Metro shuts
down on weekend nights (ap
proximately 12:30 a.m. Fridays
and 2:30 a.m. Saturdays), thou
sands of partied-out Parisians
wait in long taxi queues, hoping
to get picked up before sunrise.
Rather than wait along with
them, I choose to hop on a bike
and ride home with a smile on
my face.
But the system isn't without
flaws. Computer glitches have
been known to render stations
temporarily inoperable. Al
though Visa and MasterCard
are accepted, only my Ameri
can Express card seems to work
(friends have experienced the
same problem). And the other
night, when I rolled up to the
Velib station closest to my
apartment, all the bike attach
ment points were occupied.
By punching in my sub
scriber number, however, the
system gave me an additional
15 minutes to find another sta
tion before the half-hour charge
kicked in. The computer screen
displayed the location of the
nearest station. It even listed
the number of unoccupied bike
attachment points: one.
Pedaling furiously, I covered
900 feet of Parisian asphalt in
no time. But when I reached the
station someone was docking
their bike in the final slot.
C'est la vie. I rode to the next
closest station, docked my bike
and walked home.
USING VELIB Bicycles are available 24 hours
a day, 365 days a year.
When subscribing, a 150 euro ($202) authorization is made on your credit card.
Helmets are not provided. For information on renting helmets and long-term bicycles, click the Velib link on the City of Paris Web site, www.paris-france.
org/en.
Instructions are available in
three languages: French, English
and Spanish. German, Italian,
Arabic, Chinese and Japanese
will soon be available.
For more information, visit the
Velib site at www.velib.paris.
fr (French only. An English-lan
guage site is coming soon).
Travel, Pages 102 on 10/28/2007