NY Times: Finding Liberté on Two Wheels
Posted on November 26, 2007
Filed Under bikes, elsewhere, urban design
The NYTimes ran a nice point-of-view article by Eric Rayman this weekend about the success of Paris’ new Velib program. It begins –
MY plane landed at Charles de Gaulle airport. I took the RER train into Paris, dropped off my bag and, two hours after landing, I was riding a bicycle down the Boulevard Saint-Germain.
No, I’m not in training for the Tour de France and, no, I do not travel with a bicycle or for that matter any other sports paraphernalia. I was just participating in the latest craze that has swept Paris. I was on a Vélib.
I wonder how long it will take before Mayor Bloomberg makes nice with New York’s cycling community and see that a Velib-like program can help his congestion mitigation planning — even if it means a few city-owned bikes roll in Critical Mass. Bicycle libraries have been tried in the United States before, from Portland to Minneapolis to college campuses. Historically, they haven’t lasted long because of perennial problems with maintenance and theft. The success of the Velib program will ultimately rest on its longevity, but the technology on which it is based gives it a leg up over previous bike library programs.
Vive le Velib!
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