Two links about bikes
Posted on July 14th, 2008 – 11:57 AMBy Roadguy
We’ve had quite a bit of bike talk the past week or so, but hey, ’tis the season, so here are a couple more related links.
The first is to a fellow Strib blog, BodyTalk, which looks at a Blue Cross program to give bicyclists discounts on some merchandise if they bike a certain number of miles; the post is here, and Josephine would love your comments.
The second link is from the New York Times; yesterday’s paper had this story about the huge success of Paris’ bike-rental program. More than 20,000 bikes, 1,450 rental stations, 120,000 rides a day, millions of euros for the city. On the less-rosy side, bike-car tensions are rising (surprise), and there have been three fatalities among bike renters. Overall, it’s going vastly better than our local yellow bike experiments of past years. We’ll have to see whether any U.S. cities try this on a grand scale.
6 Responses to "Two links about bikes"
Actually Roadguy, Washington already is. You can link to the rental program here.
Originally scheduled to open in the early spring, the SmartBike DC program is now scheduled to launch on August 1st. For a $40 annual subscription, participants will receive a magnetic card that can be swiped at any of the 10 rental locations. Riders can rent bikes for up to three hours at a time from 6am to 10pm seven days a week. The SmartBike DC program will be operated by Clear Channel Outdoor which runs similar programs in several European capitals.
Those evil mega-corporations…..
Okay, first link (”Washington already is”) didn’t work. Get the story that I quoted here.
When I read the NY Times story about Vélib yesterday I thought of the Red Bull display that is currently blocking both lanes of a major bicycle commuting river crossing and about 1/2 of the pedestrian space on the same bridge (The Stone Arch bridge). The Times article mentions that the City of Paris receives the revenue from Vélib subscriptions as well as all hourly fees and royalties on the ad revenue generated by JCDecaux, the company that runs the system on advertising revenue. The City of Paris brought in $5.5 million in revenue from the Vélib system in the first year alone! How much is the City of Minneapolis generating from the Red Bull display? My point here is that there are better ways to generate revenue while filing other needs (providing mobility options).
Regarding the increased motorist/cyclist tension and the three fatalities I have two comments:
1. This is a good problem to have (not the fatalities) as it’s a chance to educate cyclists and motorists alike on the proper ways to operate their respective vehicles. I promise that motorist/cyclist tension existed in Paris before the Vélib system was introduced.
2. The three fatalities does not seem like a high number (the article does not provide historical bicycle fatality rates in Paris for comparison). I suspect the average annual fatalities in Paris were at a similar rate before Vélib.
Minneapolis and St. Paul could really get a lot of cars off the downtown streets with a system like Vélib (and generate some much needed revenue). Faison-nous une Vélib ici! C’est ce dont on a besoin.
The Times article said “While an average bike weighs 33 pounds and is used for 124 miles a year…”. Is that a typo???
I think that’s a typo, Suz. By the way, I understated the amount of revenue the City of Paris has taken in so far:
$31.5 million from subscribers and users of the bikes plus an additional $5.5 million a year, fixed in the contract, from advertising royalties.
Darn, I was hoping my 100 mi/week would make me a mega-athlete in France. 
