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Velib in Paris: Balance Sheet for First Year
Here's an article, in French, in today's Le Figaro about the first
anniversary of the introduction of the Vélib free public bicycle scheme and its successes and costs. The upshot is, Velib brings in big money to the City of Paris, but is extremely costly to JCDecaux, the advertizing firm that is under contract to supply and maintain the bikes in return for advertizing poster space. The main reason for the high costs being, surprise me, vandalism and theft. For those who can read French, some of the reader comments are pretty interesting as well. http://tinyurl.com/45spka EFR Ile de France Who believes public docks should be reinstituted for people who degrade bicycles. |
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Velib in Paris: Balance Sheet for First Year
On Jun 25, 2:15*am, Artemisia wrote:
Here's an article, in French, in today's Le Figaro about the first anniversary of the introduction of the Vélib free public bicycle scheme and its successes and costs. The upshot is, Velib brings in big money to the City of Paris, but is extremely costly to JCDecaux, the advertizing firm that is under contract to supply and maintain the bikes in return for advertizing poster space. The main reason for the high costs being, surprise me, vandalism and theft. For those who can read French, some of the reader comments are pretty interesting as well. Babelfish translated well enough: In one year, it conquered 200.000 subscribers for 25 million uses, but the flights and degradations would concern nearly 30 % of the park. It is an undeniable blow marketing. One of these “signals” whose magazines raffolent and who feed their sagas annual. Besides the Town of Paris intends to celebrate the first year of Vélib', its bicycle in self-service, on the Fields-Élysées… Like all the great French victories. Next on July 27, 350 lucky ones, of the amateurs of the small Parisian queen recruited by a play Internet, will go up the avenue a few hours before the runners of the Tour de France. Actually, it is last on July 15 which the first blow of pedal was given. The hour of the first assessments sounded. Far from being a pink and green legend of ecology, Vélib' is a frightening machine of economic and political war, fruit of a wild battle between two giants of the advertising display and the ambition of a man, Bertrand Delanoë… With 25 million hirings in one year of exercise, 200 000 subscribers and more than 16 000 bicycles, Vélib' was essential on Paris like the pillar-shaped billboard and the small black with the counter. Each day, the Parisian ones carry out some 120 000 ways, with a point with 141 200 on June 21 for the Festival of the music, and even with 180 000 last October during the strikes. According to a survey ordered for the City by the JCDecaux operator, the rate of satisfaction of the users plank 98 %. Icing on the cake, the City should box this year nearly 30 million euros thanks to the only product of the hirings. Without counting the political profit from which Bertrand Delanoë profited during the last electoral campaign. Vélib' made forget the failures of the transport policy of first mandature. The congestions, the suppression of the parking spaces, the corridors of bus, work of the tram however fed the grogne of Parisian during four years. “It is an good idea, recognizes Pierre-Yves Bournazel, elected UMP of the Town of Paris, moreover would have implemented we it. But from there to forget the inconsistency of the municipal team as regards transport…” Sign success: Delanoë and the former assistant charged with transport between 2001 and 2007, Denis Baupin, now reorientated on sustainable development, dispute the paternity of Vélib'. In the entourage of the mayor, one does not hesitate to entrust that the Green elected official did not believe “really” in Vélib', in any case “not to this scale”. “I am president of the cycle cities all the same, defends Baupin, and I went to Lyon to study the Lyons system of loan. In any case, I am undoubtedly the elected official who serves more his season ticket.” Rétropédalage At the end of 2006, the team of Bertrand Delanoë is aware that the assessment transport is not with the advantage of the mayor. This last then takes its distances with the Greens, whose speech anti-motorists makes devastations. At the same moment, in Lyon, the socialist mayor, Gerard Collomb, made figure of deus ex machina of urban displacement. It receives the mayors of the whole world to present his Vélo' v. To Paris, Delanoë understands quickly there that it holds a way of taking again the hand. The communication is gradually recadrée, some corridors of rectified buses and Bertrand Delanoë asks his teams to launch Vélib' as fast as possible. “At the beginning, they sent spies to us, joke Gilles Vesco, adviser delegated to displacements in Lyon. Then Baupin and Delanoë came officially.” The operation is carried out beating drum. In six months, the City denounces the advertising contract which binds it with JCDecaux and lance an invitation to tender which couples as in Lyon ad space and bicycles in self-service. The two giants of posting, American Clear Chanel and the JCDecaux national champion, find themselves face to face with the desire of in découdre. Commercial higher bids of recourse in front of the courts, it is JCDecaux which gains the market. “In a first round, recognizes an municipal employee, Clear Chanel had made the best offer. At the time, JCDecaux had proposed only 8 000 bicycles and an additional royalty of one euro per annum. They finally put in the basket 20 000 bicycles, 1 450 stations and 11 million over ten years.” Extension to the blocked suburbs Socialist and liberal, Delanoë made play full law with the market. To obtain 1 600 billboards (2 and 8 square meters) travelling in Paris, one of the most beautiful windows of the world, JCDecaux accepted an unconscionable bargain. The name Vélib' belongs to the City which is also owner of the system. JCDecaux, service provider, must provide 20 000 bicycles permanently feeding 1 450 stations. For the moment, there are of them 16 000 in circulation for 1 300 stations. The Cyclocity company, subsidiary of the group, is indeed confronted with a problem of vandalism and degradation of important use which obère the profitability of the operation. Of Lyon, where the service was inaugurated, JCDecaux requires however a revision of the contract. “He says to us to lose 3 million euros per annum, recognizes Gilles Vesco, a company cannot accept a chronic deficit but we are not ready to re- examine the contract for as much. Lyon took a risk.” In Paris, these would be the 3 000 bicycles which would have been stolen since one year and almost as much put except service over the same period, that is to say nearly 30 % of the park. The customs officers frequently find in Marseilles of Vélib' in the containers of the ferries which go to the Maghreb. And the tourists were accustomed to cross them in the streets of Casablanca. A few weeks ago, it is in Romania that a Parisian bicycle was found in a camp of Roms. The overcosts are important. Some 1 500 bicycles must be repaired each day and in 20 % of the cases, the intervention must be carried out in a workshop of Cyclocity. Under are such conditions, the gravitational tariffs offered to Parisian (29 euros the yearly subscription, 7 euros for one week and 1 euro the day with the first thirty free minutes) bearable on the long run? The more so as the intermediate duration of use of Vélib' never exceeds the twenty-two minutes. Cyclocity already had to make important modifications of its bicycle. The chains of bicycles in particular had to be reinforced, like the too light executives to resist the urban use. Lastly, the baskets also had to be welded more firmly to avoid the flights in series. Each bicycle would cost nearly 2 500 euros Decaux whereas the plane business of origin had budgeted for them around 1 000 euros. Jean-Charles Decaux, president of the directory of JCDecaux, remains very discrete on these figures of exploitation. “Our company is with dimensions, rétorque it with the smile, these elements belong to our secrecies house. We invest 85 million euros on this program which combines movable urban, contained services and publicity. It is an axis of major development for the group. Today, we have 38 000 bicycles in circulation in the world and several large capitals are interested.” The extension of Vélib' to the cities of the suburbs for the moment is blocked. And JCDecaux cannot count on a captive market in Ile-de- France, Clear Chanel indeed engaged a recourse in front of the Council of State to oblige each municipality to pass an invitation to tender and to choose its own operator. “Large Paris of the bicycle” is not for tomorrow. |
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Velib in Paris: Balance Sheet for First Year
On Jun 25, 3:15*am, Artemisia wrote:
Here's an article, in French, in today's Le Figaro about the first anniversary of the introduction of the Vélib free public bicycle scheme and its successes and costs. The upshot is, Velib brings in big money to the City of Paris, but is extremely costly to JCDecaux, the advertizing firm that is under contract to supply and maintain the bikes in return for advertizing poster space. The main reason for the high costs being, surprise me, vandalism and theft. Thanks, it is an interesting article. It certainly seems that Parisiens like the idea. For some reason I had not realized the size of the program. I was thinking in the low 1,000s of bikes not in the teens. The amount of repairs and theft is suprising, especially the theft. From what I remember of the bikes I had not expected them to be that popular a target for thieves. I got a kick out of the tourists riding them in Casablanca. By the way what's with bus lanes? I had heard about the tram but not a bus lanes fiasco. John Kane Kingston ON Canada |
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Velib in Paris: Balance Sheet for First Year
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Velib in Paris: Balance Sheet for First Year
On Jun 25, 3:18*pm, Mike the unimaginative
wrote: landotter wrote in news:4ca8e589-b1fb-471f-a88c- : On Jun 25, 2:15*am, Artemisia wrote: Here's an article, in French, in today's Le Figaro about the first anniversary of the introduction of the Vélib free public bicycle scheme and its successes and costs. The upshot is, Velib brings in big money to the City of Paris, but is extremely costly to JCDecaux, the advertizing firm that is under contract to supply and maintain the bikes in return for advertizing poster space. The main reason for the high costs being, surprise me, vandalism and theft. For those who can read French, some of the reader comments are pretty interesting as well. Babelfish translated well enough: Merde c'etait plus facile en francais!!- What's wrong with " the rate of satisfaction of the users plank 98 %." |
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Velib in Paris: Balance Sheet for First Year
On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:59:06 -0700 (PDT), John Kane
wrote: [---] By the way what's with bus lanes? I had heard about the tram but not a bus lanes fiasco. Hardly surprising that you hadn't heard about it, because there is no "bus lane fiasco". Just the usual wishful thinking and biased reporting to be expected from a newspaper like "Le Figaro". |
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Velib in Paris: Balance Sheet for First Year
"John Kane" a écrit:
By the way what's with bus lanes? I had heard about the tram but not a bus lanes fiasco. If you mean the user comment: M Delanoë avait déjà saturé les voies ed circulation normale. Maintenant; grâce au Velib, c'est au tour des voies de bus d'être bloquées .E effet, en plaçant massivementd es vélo dans les voies de bus, ceux ci reste bloquée 3/4 du temps derrière un vélo. Il ne peuvent pas le dépasser, car il faut qu'il se rabatte à droite pour un arrêt. Résultat, maintenant en bus on va à la vitesse d'un vélo, sans compter que ceux ci grillent les feux rouges; Mais le fait de dessiner de jolis vélo dans les couloirs de bus, a permsi de les comptabiliser dans les km de piste cyclables crées. On fait cohabiter dans cet espace (souvent clos) des véhicules et des usagers qui n'ont ni les même vitesse ni les pmême susage. Un vélo va doucement mais régulièrement. Un bus accélère, décélère et s'arrête fréquement pour faire monter et descendre les boyageurs. Résultats ces uasagers aux comportement différents ne peuvent cohabiter dans les voies du bus. the complaint is that bicycle signs have been painted in bus lanes to augment the stats for the creation of new cycle lanes. In Paris a bus lane is supposedly for RATP (Paris Transport Authority) vehicles *only* unless other vehicles (including bicycles) are explicitly allowed by signage - though in reality taxis and bikes are tolerated. Paris bus lanes usually have a physical barrier of curb height to divide them from the other lanes, and they're typically not much wider than a bus. That means that buses get stuck behind cyclists, and vice versa. I don't have any experience of the problem from a bus passenger's point of view - I haven't taken a bus in my six years here in Paris. As a cyclist, aggression from bus drivers isn't uncommon. James Thomson |
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Velib in Paris: Balance Sheet for First Year
John Kane wrote:
The amount of repairs and theft is suprising, especially the theft. From what I remember of the bikes I had not expected them to be that popular a target for thieves. I got a kick out of the tourists riding them in Casablanca. When the white provo bikes were liberated in Amsterdam the idea finally failed to succeed because people stole them. I never understood why, when it was so easy to take a free bike when you needed one, there were people who had to keep them to themselves. Probably shut away somewhere. |
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Velib in Paris: Balance Sheet for First Year
On Jun 25, 2:33*pm, John Kane wrote:
On Jun 25, 3:18*pm, Mike the unimaginative wrote: landotter wrote in news:4ca8e589-b1fb-471f-a88c- : On Jun 25, 2:15*am, Artemisia wrote: Here's an article, in French, in today's Le Figaro about the first anniversary of the introduction of the Vélib free public bicycle scheme and its successes and costs. The upshot is, Velib brings in big money to the City of Paris, but is extremely costly to JCDecaux, the advertizing firm that is under contract to supply and maintain the bikes in return for advertizing poster space. The main reason for the high costs being, surprise me, vandalism and theft. For those who can read French, some of the reader comments are pretty interesting as well. Babelfish translated well enough: Merde c'etait plus facile en francais!!- What's wrong with " the rate of satisfaction of the users plank 98 %." * Lots of zingers in there! Like, "The chains of bicycles in particular had to be reinforced, like the too light executives to resist the urban use." Pierre, reinforce the executive--he is too light and succumbing to gay Paris! |
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Velib in Paris: Balance Sheet for First Year
On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:12:39 +0100, Dan Gregory
wrote: John Kane wrote: The amount of repairs and theft is suprising, especially the theft. From what I remember of the bikes I had not expected them to be that popular a target for thieves. I got a kick out of the tourists riding them in Casablanca. When the white provo bikes were liberated in Amsterdam the idea finally failed to succeed because people stole them. I never understood why, when it was so easy to take a free bike when you needed one, there were people who had to keep them to themselves. Probably shut away somewhere. Possibly because people are selfish? |
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