Velib and the Boris Bikes: A tale of two cities

Velib is by no means the world’s first mass cycle hire scheme, but with over 20,000 bicycles and docking stations roughly every 300 metres throughout the city centre, Vélib is not only Europe’s largest and best-known pay-as-you-go cycling system, but the inspiration for London’s own Boris Bikes.

Velib continues to tweak its systems in order to overcome the teething problems that inevitably affect all such schemes, but it continues to be plagued by unforeseen levels of vandalism.

Rich urban bikers

Both the city of Paris and the scheme’s commercial sponsor are committed to overcoming the problem, but social commentators have likened the vandalising and subsequent hanging of Velib bikes from trees in Paris to the actions of the mob during the French revolution; there is a perception in the poorer suburbs of the city that the hire scheme exists simply in order to pander to rich urbanites.

Although rates of vandalism in London have not reached the levels that have blighted Velib, and unused bikes are more likely to be used for an impromptu spinning class than end up in a shipping container bound for North Africa –as has been the case in Paris – it’s a criticism of that echoes on this side of the channel – a recent survey revealed that six in ten Boris Bikes users are white professional men aged 25 to 44 and earning more than £50,000.

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