Vélib’ (French: vélo libre or vélo liberté, English: free bicycle or bicycle freedom) is a public bicycle rental programme in Paris, France. The initiative was pushed by Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë from the French Socialist Party.
Posted on 11/01/2009 9:29:14 PM PST by Lorianne
Vélib’, Paris’s bicycle rental system, inspired a new urban ethos for the era of climate change.
Residents here can rent a sturdy bicycle from hundreds of public stations and pedal to their destinations, an inexpensive, healthy and low-carbon alternative to hopping in a car or bus.
But this latest French utopia has met a prosaic reality: Many of the specially designed bikes, which cost $3,500 each, are showing up on black markets in Eastern Europe and northern Africa. Many others are being spirited away for urban joy rides, then ditched by roadsides, their wheels bent and tires stripped.
With 80 percent of the initial 20,600 bicycles stolen or damaged, the program’s organizers have had to hire several hundred people just to fix them. And along with the dent in the city-subsidized budget has been a blow to the Parisian psyche.
“The symbol of a fixed-up, eco-friendly city has become a new source for criminality,” Le Monde mourned in an editorial over the summer. “The Vélib’ was aimed at civilizing city travel. It has increased incivilities.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ya. Getting to work, or a date smelly and sweaty is so very "civilized".
People stealing expensive bikes. Who woulda thunk it?
The problem with this green idea is the smell of the Bullcrap from its perceived benefit and are not these global-warming religionist against flatulance of bulls?
And this comes as a surprise?
And they’re paying $3500 apiece? Lance’s bike doesn’t cost that much!!
What the hell makes a glunker bicycle worth $3500 each???
Redundant. My ride is an 1989 Dodge Ram 150 four wheel drive pick up. Anyone who wants to steal it will soon meet God. Or maybe someome else.
Wow! That is surprising.
Bicycles costing $3,500 being left around for anyone to take and only 20% are mysteriously stolen. You would think the number would be even higher.
Hey, it only took these morons at the NYT 4 paragraphs to use the word “stolen”.
“What the hell makes a glunker bicycle worth $3500 each???”
Union dues.
The idiot willing pay that much.
I'm sure we'll see the same thing here (we already have 'rent-a-prius' programs).
Westchester County, NY, wants to do a similar thing. I posted on the original thread, “What could possibly go wrong”?
“It’s the same kind of idiots who clog up public toilets for fun.”
Light cherry bomb, drop in toilet and flush!
M80's work better. At least that's what I've heard.
It is unfathomable how libs perpetually keep coming up with one socialist plan of FAIL right after another. They continually outdo themselves year after year. They won’t rest until everyone is in huts and using poison ivy for toilet paper.
Hmm. "Resentful, angry or anarchic youth"... I wonder what *that* means. / s
Expected. But also expected that leftists wouldn’t expect it...
They believe that man is “basically good” and can be “perfected” and not prone to crime “if only the right environment is implemented [IMPOSED]”.
Cherry bombs make 2 piece toilets every time!
Of course I haven’t done it in over 55 years!
Muslims?
These idiots are insane, under the rubric of Einstein’s definition of insanity.
No matter how hard the moronic socialists try, they will NEVER be able to engineer perfection out of human nature.
Um, yes it does. Actually, a little over $10,000.
If they tried this in Tokyo, half the bicycles would end up in North Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines or Indonesia before the first year was out.
It is! The article says that 80% of the bikes are either damaged or stolen!
Two things... First, a bicycle costing $3,500! Only an idiot government would pay that much for a bicycle. Second...Don’t those bike peddlers exhale when riding?
I have to confess I never flushed an M80 down any toilet so I can't make a comparision. However I did launch a few school garbage cans using said M80's
Au contraire! The French are always smelly and sweaty so I doubt anyone would notice!
Vélib’ (French: vélo libre or vélo liberté, English: free bicycle or bicycle freedom) is a public bicycle rental programme in Paris, France. The initiative was pushed by Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë from the French Socialist Party.
Good point. But there a are few smelly people is this country at present. I don't think I need to elaborate.
Only a fag would be caught riding one of those. I would rather walk.
I heard that reporters who were assigned to the Obama campaign plane complained of the dirt and smell. Its a GLOBAL THING. Dare to smell, Fellow Traveler! Dare to smell!
Read it again. Nearly 40% are stolen. Nearly 40% are unrepairable. Only about 4,000 bikes remain.
There was a report that Obama's dog took a dump on Airforce One. Must be true. Moving on up.
We just don't realize how liberals think- that if everyone were as 'enlightened and altruistic' as them, such utopian schemes 'could' work.
Red Flag Alert: those who 'don't think like them' might need to be gotten rid of or sent someplace to get their minds 'right'.
Red Flag Alert #2: That their plans fail is always someone else's fault and that 'someone' had better have plans to vacate quickly if they want to survive.
Red Flag Alert #3: We now live in a country with people in power who feel exactly as I have described above. They can and will make life miserable for anyone who stands between them and their utopia, count on it.
I had an 82 Buick I used to leave the keys in with the window down. I figured whoever stole it deserved it. No one did. I ended up giving it away...
“Um, yes it does. Actually, a little over $10,000.”
Yes, I know, just a bit of an exageration on my part...
But to spend $3500 on a basic commuter bike that’s almost guaranteed to be stolen is the height of stupidity, incompetence and irresponsibility - but I repeat myself!!
If you’re not familiar with the four types of money, you might want to take a look at this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RDMdc5r5z8
The whole “UTOPIAN” concept that all people will share alike is the height of stupidity. People will do what gives them more than others. That is human nature.
I used to have a SAAB that was totally rusted out and on its last leg. I used to park it on a busy street in front of my house, hoping someone would hit it or steal it.
No such luck.
Crappy Car? My Dodge pick up is not. It will climb telephone poles.
Maybe they were made so fugly in hopes that nobody would want to steal one. Eww. Why not $50 Chinese bikes that you pay the full price of as a deposit, and get back if returned in satisfactory condition.
Beats the hell out of me.
Early computer controls. It sucked. Had some sort of intermittent malfunction which would manifest itself any time I left town on a job.
I'd come home, get the car, dump the codes, change out another part, and it would run fine for a few days.
I'd go out on a job, and it was lather, rinse, repeat.
After the fourth time, and the best mechanics in town scratching their heads, I got my wife another car and hoped (I hate thieves, and I hate junk) some jerk would steal it, not for the insurance money, but for the satisfaction of some thief getting stuck somewhere when it crapped out again.
No such luck.
As for the older Dodge pickups, they were great, and I meant no offense to you or yours.
First, it’s completely stupid to have such expensive bikes in such a program. Good, simple (neither bells nor whistles), inexpensive bikes that can be replaced regularly would be the way to go.
Secondly, there is no way any type of rental system for a product such as this can work without an appropriately huge deposit/automatic forfeiture attached to it. Even the dollar vids out of the Red Box automatically get charged as a “purchase” if not returned at some point.
Finally, the initial checkout and final return has to be through a lot attendant or some other way to check for damage.
Yes, this is all starting to sound like the rental car lot, but that’s where this has to go if it’s going to really work and be reliable.
No offense was taken. Just listening to David Allen Coe and making conversation.
I think there actually are some possibilities here for *private enterprise*!
I could see applications where, done with the appropriate safeguards, one-way rentals of bicycles (various drop-off points) could be a nice business and a lot of fun. But let somebody with some skin in the game (an entrepreneur) figure it out.
Exactly!
This is how private entrepreneurs do it in beach towns I frequent. Put your card or cash down for a deposit, get it back when you bring the bike back in good shape.
Works rather well.
But this latest French utopia has met a prosaic reality: Many of the specially designed bikes, which cost $3,500 each, are showing up on black markets in Eastern Europe and northern Africa. Many others are being spirited away for urban joy rides, then ditched by roadsides, their wheels bent and tires stripped.
With 80 percent of the initial 20,600 bicycles stolen or damaged, the program’s organizers have had to hire several hundred people just to fix them.””
Duh.
Where I live, you could buy used bikes for $50 each.
Do ya think this would have been better than $3,500????????
By the way, know what the moron bureaucrats do where I live????????
Confiscate the bikes “illegally parked” in front of McDonalds and...
wait for it ......
throws them away.
Government madness, sheeple crushed again,
no one complains.
Incredible.
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