Public Bike Rentals - Paris

Paris is governed by a Socialist-Green city council (with a Green in charge of transport), and this 15th July, the city will introduce a system of public bike rentals called Vélib. There will be 750 self-service (chip card) stations with over 10 000 bicycles for rent. Each bike will have a basket, a light, a lock, and three speeds:

Customers will release a bike from the station by means of a chip card, which then lets them deposit the bike at any other station at the end of the journey. Payment occurs electronically. A customer has to load up the card by buying a subscription to the service, which can be purchased online, in town halls or at post offices. Using a metro ticket as a subscription will also be possible at some stations.