Thefts in Paris Bike Scheme

There is a popular bicycle rental scheme in Paris that has transformed
travel in the city which has run into problems just 18 months after
its successful launch.

Over half the original fleet of 15,000 specially made bicycles have
disappeared, presumed stolen. They have been used 42 million times
since their introduction but vandalism and theft are taking their toll
apparently. I found this quite unbelievable! Check out the article
below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7881079.stm

On 27 Jun., 17:49, Andy2166 wrote:
There is a popular bicycle rental scheme in Paris that has transformed
travel in the city which has run into problems just 18 months after
its successful launch.

Over half the original fleet of 15,000 specially made bicycles have
disappeared, presumed stolen. They have been used 42 million times
since their introduction but vandalism and theft are taking their toll
apparently. I found this quite unbelievable! Check out the article
below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7881079.stm

Bah. The firm "JCDecaux" that runs the Velib program made a lot of
press spin on vandalism, they tried to paint a "doom-and-gloom"
picture so they could get some more money. The fact is that the Velib
program is a huge succes, it just keeps growing (there is at least
20.000 bikes now). Both the City of Paris and JCDecaux makes millions
of euros yearly on the Velib scheme.


--
Regards

Peter Cole wrote:

:I'm not sure who you're quoting.

As far as I can tell, he's ranting against some hallucinatory debate
opponent, and can't decide which side he's supposed to be arguing.

--
This is a randomly numbered sig.

Keiron wrote:
Free use? It's a rental. I used it briefly 2 years ago: you buy a
swipe card from a machine on the street using a credit card and then
that card releases a bike from the one of many usefully place
stations. First 30 mins or so is free, then a euro for the next etc
(some such price structure).

42 million uses in 1.5 years; 10000 km/bike/year; 20000 bikes. Averages out
to 7 km per "rental", or under a half hour ride to the next rental station.
A half hour of pedalling for a non-cyclist is a non-casual outing. It's a
tough economic model if the first 1/2 hour is free.

Per Keiron:
I agree with Jobst earlier post: What is wrong with
people!?

I'm not the least bit religious, but I would concede that the
sages had a pretty good working hypothesis with "Original Sin".
--
PeteCresswell

David Scheidt wrote:
Peter Cole wrote:

I'm not sure who you're quoting.

As far as I can tell, he's ranting against some hallucinatory debate
opponent, and can't decide which side he's supposed to be arguing.

Whoever 'he' is.

HTH(BKIW)BS

On Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:01:25 +0000 (UTC), David Scheidt
wrote:

Peter Cole wrote:

:I'm not sure who you're quoting.

As far as I can tell, he's ranting against some hallucinatory debate
opponent, and can't decide which side he's supposed to be arguing.

Dear Dave,

If neither of you can be bothered to read, don't expect to be
hand-held.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On 28 Jun., 01:28, wrote:

"JCDecaux paid start-up costs of about $115 million and employs the
equivalent of about 285 people full-time to operate the system and
repair the bikes for 10 years. The city receives all revenue from the
programme as well as a fee of about US$4.3 million a year. In return
JCDecaux receives exclusive control over 1,628 city-owned billboards;
the city receives about half of that advertising space at no charge
for public-interest advertising.[3] (Slightly different numbers were
reported in July 2008.)"

So there are 285 French employees to be paid every week after $115
million in startup costs--a minor detail missing from the profit
predictions in this thread.

The numbers may seem big to you, but JCDecaux is a strictly for profit
company. They agreed to pay both the startup cost, and and the running
costs and pay the city of Paris some millions every year, because they
thought it was a good investment that they would recoup within a
reasonable time. They run many such similar schemes around in Europe,
eg. financing bus shelters for the advertising rights, or run similar
bicycle schemes as the Velib one. In fact most of JCDecaux's billion
dollar revenue comes from such advertising schemes.

And the city keeps about half the 1,628 billboards for their own ads,
cutting the private company's hopes in half--and the company has to
pay the city $4.3 million each year, while the city also keeps the
"revenue" (presumably the ridership fees).

Again, JCDecaux knew the contract before signing it, but they still
thought it would be a profitable adventure. Knowing the company, they
hardly signed up with the prospect of a razor sharp profit margin. And
one can hardly claim that they where novices pioneering unknown
territory. It is true that the vandalism in the Paris Velib scheme is
much higher than the similar Lyon bicycle scheme, but so are the
profits.

The slump in advertising revenue because of the present economic
recession is far more serious for JCDecaux and the Velib program than
a slightly higher initial vandalism level. Despite what some hand
wringing doom-and-gloom alarmist would like to believe, then The Velib
program is a smashing success, with evermore people using it. Not only
does the city get a direct revenue from the program, but these
millions are slump change in contrast to what it saves on car
infrastructure; one of the biggest and most expensive challenges for
European cities today, has been the ever growing car traffic; every
new express lane, or beltway build cost millions of Euros and just
causes ever more cars trying to get into the city. So every commuter
who now combines train/bus with Velib is a big bonus. The Velib
program is also a huge success among the tourists, something that
matter for a city that earns so much money on tourism as Paris do,
JCDecaux's profit on the Paris Velib scheme is a secret of course, but
at least they entered the contract with the hope of a fat profit. I
think that it is fair to assume that JCDecaux where expecting +10-20
million US dollars yearly revenue to recoup their capital investment
within 10 years, so a higher than expected level of vandalism will
hardly put them in red. I think it is safe to assume that they are
still earning millions of Euros every year, despite the global fall in
advertising revenue. The city of Paris is certainly both earning and
saving money on the Velib programme.

--
Regards

wrote:
On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:18:33 -0400, Peter Cole

There would be no need for the city government to enter into a
long-term contract trading advertising licenses to a company that is
finding the real costs to be less pie-in-the-sky than hoped for.

Ask yourself why the city government was trading massive billboard
assets for bicycles instead of, say, coin-operated laundromats.
Probably that damn social engineering stuff again. The French are well
known commies. I hope it doesn't happen here (although Boston's mayor is
sounding enthusiastic -- the fool!). A city full of bicycles -- what a
nightmare!

Dear Peter,

The _startup_ costs for the Paris system were $115 million.

Things got worse after that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9lib%27

One would assume the startup costs could have been fairly accurately
estimated, even if the vandalism rate was a surprise.

"The bike scheme was supposed to cost the taxpayers nothing. But now the
Paris City Council has agreed to cover $500 of the cost of replacing
each damaged bike — an estimated expenditure of $2 million a year." (NPR
8/09)

The first year revenue was estimated at $20M euros.(BBC)

You estimated the annual ad revenue at $40M.

"The city receives all revenue from the programme as well as a fee of
about US$4.3 million a year." (Wikipedia)

Doesn't seem like the $2-4M annual vandalism surcharge is that big a
deal in the overall numbers, although it makes great media copy -- "This
is why we can't ever have anything nice."

"From continuing high demand, Vélib' has been extended to neighbouring
councils (outside of Zone 1) in 2008.[17] 4,000 bicycles have been
distributed in 29 towns on the edges of Paris.[6]" (Wikipedia)

It isn't the first in Paris, nor unique in Europe:
"Prior to Vélib’ a medium-scale bike hire operation — Roue Libre —
operated in Paris, co-ordinated with RATP (which runs buses and Metro
services in Paris). Its continued operation may be in question with the
ten-fold increase in hire-bike numbers and massive improvement in
hire-bike accessibility."(Wikipedia)

"Other such schemes are operational in other cities, using different
models. In Copenhagen, a non-profit foundation has operated a free open
access bike scheme seasonally since 1995 and six German cities are
served by Call a Bike which is run by Deutsche Bahn. In Luxembourg
JCDecaux is operating bicycles called Vel'oh, the bicycles and payment
system are based on Vélib’, but with some design differences. A similar
scheme, also provided by JCDecaux, began operations in Dublin in
September 2009[20]. Perhaps one of the original electronically managed
systems was Bikeabout[21] (1996) at Portsmouth University, from which
many lessons were learned."(Wikipedia)

Despite the "failure", it looks like other cities want to do it too:
"London mayor Boris Johnson, himself a keen cyclist, is due to
introduce a similar system in London in May 2010.[19] He is also
looking at the Autolib' idea and has set up a corresponding working
group.[19]"

"Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard announced on August 3, 2009 a similar
system with 1,114 public bicycles and 84 stations distributed in the
Cuauhtemoc borough.[22]. This system began to operate on February 16th,
2010."(Wikipedia)

I don't see how "things got worse after that". I would expect in such a
public-private partnership that there would be a good deal of ongoing
dickering with millions of dollars annually at stake. Both of the major
players certainly have well developed public relations groups. Being
that it was the initiative of a socialist government, I'm sure the
program isn't without profound political and ideological overtones.
Lastly, the "barbarians at the gates" (read lawless immigrant youth)
story is always great tabloid fodder.

"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles." --
http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/subt...homesick-blues

wrote:
On Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:01:25 +0000 (UTC), David Scheidt
wrote:

Peter Cole wrote:

:I'm not sure who you're quoting.

As far as I can tell, he's ranting against some hallucinatory debate
opponent, and can't decide which side he's supposed to be arguing.

Dear Dave,

If neither of you can be bothered to read, don't expect to be
hand-held.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Now that's a pretty ****y thing to say.