Livingstone wants mass bike scheme for London

London mayor. Ken Livingstone, has asked Transport for London (TfL) to look into launching a bike hire scheme in the capital along similar lines to the Velib scheme introduced this summer in Paris. TfL is also to investigate other projects elsewhere in Europe. Livingstone has seen the Paris scheme in action for himself, and discussed it with the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe. "It clearly works and is highly popular", says the London mayor. In its first month over 1.6 million bike rentals were recorded and more than 50,000 users signed up. The first 10,000 hire bikes went into service in Paris on 15th July, based in more than 1,400 bike "stations". That's one every 300 yards in the city centre! By the end of this year. it is intended that more than 20,000 bikes will be available. Available for use by residents and visitors alike, the bikes with baskets and mudguards are nominally free to use for the first half hour, then from €1 to €8 for periods up to 3.5 hours. Registration fees to use the bikes cost €29 per year, €5 per week or €1 per day. The project is part of the Paris mayor's policy to reduce motorised traffic in the city by 40 before 2020. Monsieur Delanoe wants to increase cycle use in Paris from the present 40,000 journeys a day to 250,000 by the end of the year. He said that the bicycles would give Parisians a new sense of "pleasure, freedom, innovation and performance". The scheme follows the success of similar projects in Lyon and Bourdeaux. However, some people have complained that, at 20 kg. the new bikes are too heavy. They have also resulted in a dramatic increase in on-street advertising - the quid pro quo for outdoor advertising company JC Decaux, which runs the scheme. The new French administration of President Sarkozy has also been turning to bikes. Two ministers swapped their limousines for bicycles in Paris (at least for a week), including Alain Juppe, the deputy Prime Minister, who heads a new Environment and Transport superministry. In London, Ken Livingstone says that cycling groups and other stakeholders would be consulted on any options drawn up for a London scheme, which would also need the support of the London boroughs. Street-based bike hire schemes already exist in the UK but on nothing like the scale of Paris. OY Bike operates small schemes in London, with users booking a bike by mobile phone.

CNN News September 2007