Paris Bike Rental Scheme Goes Global

A French advertising company hit upon the simplest self-service scheme. It won over thousands of Parisians and is now being exported across the world

by Manfred Dworschak

Chicago is interested, and so is Moscow. Geneva and Sydney are in negotiations, and the mayor of London has called by twice. All eyes are on Paris. But what is the big attraction? It's a brand new model of bicycle, one that can be seen teeming through the streets by the thousands, all the same chic silver-gray, with a dolphin-like design. And they are all rented.

Paris has suddenly become the world capital of bike rentals. Nowhere else in the world has quite so many rental bikes standing at the ready: there will soon be over 20,000. And the fleet is really being put to use: commuters pedal from the Metro to the office, managers pop out in their lunch breaks to pick up groceries, tourists zigzag in every direction. More than six million rides have been clocked up in just three months -- there is hardly a faster way to get through the legendary tangle of the French capital.

What the French call "la Vélorution" was launched on July 15 this year and it was an advertising company that came up with the idea.

JCDecaux, the world's second biggest outdoor advertising company, has established 750 computer-aided rental stations throughout the city and that number is expected to almost double this year to 1,460. (In comparison, the Metro has just 300 stations.) The company designed rock-solid bicycles and had them built in Hungary, and it operates the entire network at its own expense. In return, JCDecaux gets the exclusive rights to sell advertising on the city's 1,628 urban billboards for the next 10 years.

The deal provides a lot of benefits for customers. They pay a minimal basic fee: €1 ($1.45) per day, €5 per week, and just €29 for the entire year. Once the customer is signed up they can take as many short trips as they wish. The bike can be returned to any station and the first half an hour is free -- after that the price rises steeply.

And the message has gotten through loud and clear: more than 80 percent of all rides up to now have been free. And the fleet is getting optimum use, with every bike being rented on average 10 times a day.

In summer it is tourists first and foremost who take advantage of the service, but Parisians themselves are also increasingly embracing the idea. Around 100,000 people have already taken out annual subscriptions to the Vélib rental scheme.

The network of parking stations is so dense that, as a rule, at any time the nearest station is barely 300 meters (984 feet) away. Even those who own bicycles could feel tempted to leave them at home when they only need to make short trips. After all it can cost €29 just to change the chain on a bicycle. And a rental bicycle never even needs to be oiled -- a bike-servicing boat belonging to JCDecaux chugs up and down the River Seine, collecting bicycles in need of maintenance.

The advertising company, it seems, takes its unusual assignment seriously. "We've become a part of the public transportation network," says 48-year-old CEO Jean-François Decaux.

It was his 70-year-old father Jean-Claude who had the idea back in the 1960s of combining municipal advertising with the provision of services. Since then JCDecaux has seldom been at a loss for original ideas when it comes to getting advertising rights from cities. In return the company has provided the cities with self-cleaning public toilets or illuminated signs that show when the next bus will arrive at a stop.

But rarely has an offer, particularly for local governments so plagued by traffic, seemed as inviting as bike rental does now. "In a few years all France's big cities will have this," asserts Jean-François Decaux. Marseille signed up recently and Toulouse is due to follow.

Lyon already has JCDecaux rental bikes. In Brussels, Vienna and Seville there are some in use, although with far fewer stations. That's set to change: Paris has shown that the density of the network is key.

This great success comes at a time when the world seems to be suddenly well-disposed toward the idea of rental bikes. There is hardly a major city that has not started to make plans.