Velib obsession

velibobsession.blogspot.com

Paris Vélib Service (Vélib is short for “Velo Liberte” or “Bike Freedom”) is a city-wide bike rental service. With plans for 20,600 bicycles available on 1,451 stations, it is the largest bicycle rental project in the world.

Renting a Velib bike

UPDATE (25 October 2007): The system now accepts American Express and JCB cards that do not have the EU smart chips! Good news for visitors that do not have an EU bank card.

UPDATE (28 October 2007): Be VERY careful out there... I'm sad to write that the the first fatility involving a Velib bicycle occurred on 19 October in the 13th arrondissement at the corner of boulevard Morland and Bastille. This is first fatility since the service started July 15 2007. The 60 year old woman was struck by a truck while riding in the shared bike/bus lanes that are still commonly found in Paris. While the majority of Paris bike lanes are dedicated to bikes, there remains many that are shared between bikes, taxis, and buses. Riding in these shared lanes is tricky and I've found myself having to compete for space with very large vehicles that do not always see the bike riders well if at all. Bike helmets are not required nor used in Paris and perhaps they may catch on as there have been many fatalities involving bicyclists each year. www.liberation.fr/actualite/societe/285982.FR.php

UPDATE: With the transit strike over, bikes are now being repaired more quickly...

The French transit strike increased ridership but conversely resulted in many bikes not getting repaired. Twice while going to rent a Velib I found many bikes in the stands that were broken. The strike made transporting the bikes to the repair depots difficult resulting in many broken bikes being left in the stands.

So, WATCH OUT for flat tires, broken chains, bent wheels, etc.

The interface is a bit confusing... but it works (eventually) and you can rent a nice bike very cheaply.

Paris Vélib Service (Vélib is short for “Velo Liberte” or “Bike Freedom”) is a city-wide bike rental service. With plans for 20,600 bicycles available on 1,451 stations, it is the largest bicycle rental project in the world.

THE BIKES

The sturdy grey bikes come with a metal basket on the handlebars and are heavier than standard bicycles, built to withstand heavy use. In line with the program's green image, Vélib‘ maintenance staff get around town on 130 electrically assisted bicycles. A barge with 12 stops along the Seine will pick up bikes in need of major repairs. Cleaning staff drive electric vehicles and use rain collected on the roofs of JCDecaux offices

Shimano (brake systems)
Prowheel (core hardware)
Nexus (gear shifts, cables, etc)

The bikes are 3 speed “roadster”-type bikes.

I had some luck as when I arrived at the Jaures station as there was a ratp truck unloading new bikes. I spoke to the RATP employees and found out there are currently about 13,000 bikes in place right now with plans to have 20,600 by the end of the summer in 1,451 stations. The bikes just arrived a few days ago (on the 15th of July – right after bastille).

I walked down to the Jaures Vélib station and rented one! It’s a pretty cool bike; a bit particular looking but no one seems to mind riding them. I road it about 30 minutes and it did well. It’s not meant for comfort so watch out for bumps in the road and cobblestones. It has 3 speeds so is fairly flexible. It also has lots of illumination so seems fairly safe at night (I’ll try it tonight and see how it goes).

You have to buy a Vélib pass first:

Daily card is 1 euro
Weekly card is 7 euros
1 YEAR is 29 euros

To get the 1 year card you have to go online and sign up and get an “abonnement”. Most people visiting Paris will probably want to just get a bike for 7 days then check it in/out as needed over the 7 days. You can also obtain the 1 year card by filling out a form at the Mairie (the various city halls in each arrondissement), any metro ticket station, or many pastry shops as well!

UPDATE: I've found that I can get the Velib yearlong form online and link it to my metro pass by mailing in the form (along with a check for 29 euros and an authorization for 150 euros) to the Velib HQ outside Paris. Once this is done I can much more easily get a bike by just passing my navigo card over the sensor!

The three choices do involve a 150 Euro “deposit”. That is, if you don’t return the bike within a certain amount of time you will be charged 150 euros.

There is a 13 point legal summary that you must accept to obtain a Vélib pass (one of the annoying features is having to read through the entire legal acceptance form on a small screen) NOTE: I have since found that you can "skip" the entire text. Another issue is that when you pay with a bank card you have to switch to a different interface screen. The Main interface (a color plasma screen) for the details of the bike pass then the smaller LCD screen for the details of your bank card. But, it’s very similar to the RATP and SNCF machines used to get metro and train tickets (at least in the complexity of the user interface).

To get the 1 year card you have to go online and sign up and get an “abonnement”. Most people visiting Paris will probably want to just get a bike for 7 days then check it in/out as needed over the 7 days.

Either of the three choices do involve a 150 Euro “deposit”. That is, if you don’t return the bike within a certain amount of time you will be charged 150 euros.

The first two options can be done right at the Vélib station. There’s not a person there so you have to use the interface.

Payment:

You can use French bank card and it looks like most ATM cards will work as well. I tried using my navigo and it worked great! I also used my Bank Card and it worked also. You can also use your navigo card (your metro pass which you can obtain free from www.navigo.fr/ - you’ll need to upload a photo and provide a French address – use the address you will be staying at even if it’s a hotel; the navigo card will arrive in a few days so do this before you leave)

UPDATE: The Velib system now accepts American Express and JCB cards that do not have smart chips! Good news for foreign visitors who don't have an EU smart card...

Language:

The interface says it’s in French, German, English but these languages don’t work yet (I guess they have not translated the interface so these buttons don’t do anything). So, you’ll need to read French but it’s not that hard and there are always people around willing to help. The RATP employees say there are plans to include other languages (up to 8) but right now there are only 3 (and only French is actually working right now!).

UPDATE: During the 2nd week the interface was updated and is now working in English, Spanish, and French.

Once you receive an abonnement card you will have to select a PIN (code secret) that will allow you to use your card in other stations.

Once you process a payment, you select the stall number, then go push the button on the stall corresponding to the bike you selected. Then you just go ride off into the sunset! Then return the bike at any other station.

Once you have the pass and bike you are charged based on how long you ride it – simple. If you check out a bike and ride it for less than an hour and a half it’s free! But if you ride it longer you have to pay - A supplement of 1 euro will be charged for an additional half-hour, 2 euros for another 30-minutes and 4 euros for every addition half-hour after that.

Don’t forget to push the button on the stall to get your bike! I don’t know how many people I’ve seen try to “swipe” the paper bike ticket on the navigo interface!

SECURITY

The bikes come with a cable lock. This is passed around a pole or other object then connects into the frame of the bike. There is a small key that will release once the cable lock is snapped into place. I've had a little bit of trouble at first then realized that after clicking one end of the cable in place, to unlock it, you must also push it in a bit further to get the key to release. It's not the thickest.

RETURN

To return the bike just put it into one of the stalls. Make sure the slot is engaged. It will "click" into the slot, the light will go "yellow" then to "green" about 5 seconds later when the RFID system recognizes your bike as being returned.

If there are problems you can call Vélib’s emergency number: 01 30 79 79 30. This number is also printed on the bike's handle-bar.

JCDecaux

JCDecaux sponsors the project in exchange for advertising rights in Paris. JCDecaux is Europe’s largest outdoor advertising company. Like a similar scheme in Lyon, where 10 percent of the city's population has a subscription to the local sharing scheme, Vélib is operated by outdoor advertising giant JCDecaux, which is footing the bill in exchange for exclusive rights to 1,628 Paris billboards.

UPDATE: I've been renting one 2 or 3 times a week and it seems to work well so far. Theft has not been a huge problem so far but it does happen. The bikes come with a lock but it is not a substantial one and is easily cut. When I stop to eat somewhere I lock it up but keep it in sight. Right now they program is regarded with some pride by parisians so it seems including the appropriate marketing and presentation has some benefits. For example, the program was marketed outside of normal medial channels (outside of France). The support infrastructure is also highly visible with specialized electric vehicles, boats, and even uniforms for the maintenance personnel. This makes sense though given that the company financing it is JCDecaux (Europe's largest outdoor advertising firm).

The UI terminals: These are two-sided. One side is the main UI for renting a bike, the other is a map and a smaller interface for obtaining the balance on your bike by entering the ticket number.

There have been glitches:

1. Terminal's are sometimes offline so no way to get a bike
2. There are bikes available but the terminal doesn't know this (RFID system goes down sometimes) so it sends you to an interface to find another Velib station.
3. Sometimes the terminals will be rebooted remotely and will be unavailable for about 5 minutes while it reboots.

The UI is based on windows VB script and runs on the Windows XP embedded OS. The BIOS is Phoenix 1.14. The hardware is a 1.3Ghz Pentium III with 500MB memory.