In France's second-largest city of Lyon, a decades-old idea has been recycled - a public bicycle program that has moved into top gear with the aid of modern technology.
MAN1 (Translation): For instance, here, in Lyon, you do not need to have a bike, you can go anywhere and get a bike. You do not have to worry about bike maintenance, you hire one and return it.
DR SIMON CHAPMAN, PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH, SYDNEY UNIVERSITY: It is just fabulous. Every now and then you will come down and there will be an empty lot, they have all gone. Occasionally you will come down and there will be broken ones there, which is a little frustrating, but the frustration usually only lasts about five minutes, until someone brings another one back.
And the city council is claiming that its public bicycle scheme, called Velo'v, is doing more than getting people moving. It is also led to a reduction in car traffic.
GILLES VESCO, LYON COUNCIL: Already, in 2005, the car traffic growth has stopped and now we are scratching, little by little, 10% of the car traffic, thanks to Velo'v. That is a great achievement.
The idea of public bikes dates back to the '60s in the European cities of Amsterdam and Copenhagen and has since popped up elsewhere, but with limited success as too many bikes went missing.
JACQUES LE GARS, JC DECAUX, MANAGER NEW TECHNOLOGIES: If you want to use a bicycle, you just touch here, then you key in your PIN number. This is a simulation. Then the system is proposing a bicycle so you select your bicycle and that is it. I selected bike number one, so then I have a couple of seconds to activate bike selection. And that’s it.
Jacques Le Gars helped design the system. He says that as each user is identified through their PIN number, there is a strong incentive to return the bikes in good condition.
JACQUES LE GARS: With this agreement with the banks, if the bike is not properly given back or if it is damaged, we have the possibility to take the deposit. So we have that agreement with the bank that in case of problem, the deposit issue is solved.
REPORTER: How much is the deposit?
JACQUES LE GARS: €150.
REPORTER: It would not cover the cost of the bike.
JACQUES LE GARS: No. It is just a dissuasion issue really. But it works very well.
A pre-paid card, which costs less than a couple of dollars, allows free rental for the first half-hour. After that, it costs about a dollar an hour. Almost 90% of all journeys are less than 30 minutes, so it is basically a free ride.
STUDENT: I think it is very, very good. I bought a card for a longer time, which a lasts one year, for €10, and it is very good, especially for students because we don't have a lot of money.
And this is how the system is tracked. Each bike has an on-board computer.
ANTHONIN DARBON, JC DECAUX, VP CYCOLCITY (Translation): Here you insert a microchip card, which is the bike’s ‘Medicare card’ and ID card. Hire details are encoded on this card. When the bike is returned, the card can show us if there are any problems. For instance, it can tell us if the lights don’t work properly or if there is a problem with the brakes. When the bikes are returned, it is this gentleman’s job to make sure that the card works properlyand all the bike’s parts are in good order.
There are now more than 2,500 bikes currently in use, with plans to increase that number to 4,000 by next year. Across the city centre, bike bays are positioned within 100m of each other. Visiting Australian public health specialist Professor Simon Chapman signed up when he arrived in Lyon. He says the rewards for individuals and the community as a whole are even greater than what is immediately apparent.
DR SIMON CHAPMAN: Obviously I am getting more exercise than I would otherwise get, I'm seeing parts of the town - so my mental health is improving - I might not have ever seen before. There is a certain conviviality amongst Velo'v riders as well. We sort of give each other a bit of a nod as we go past. It is a bit of a communal thing.
The scheme came about as part of a commercial deal with an outdoor advertising company. For the right to display their billboards across the city, JC Decaux now runs the bike scheme it created.
JACQUES LE GARS: As in any tender, it is a full package. So in that package there were several dimensions. We had to offer, of course, bus shelters. We had to offer some other, companion products to bus shelters. We had to offer 2,000 bicycles, 200 bike stations, a server and all the maintenance for a long-term duration. And we hoped, of course, if our calculations are correct that the advertising revenues were going to be at the same level and the expenses linked to that.
One year on, the Lyon city council is basking in the scheme's success. They get a well-run public bike scheme for nothing and it has been a clear vote winner. For the advertising company that pays for and runs the scheme, they get exclusive access to public billboards across the city. Every day in Lyon, bikers make an average of 25,000 trips throughout the city. The collective distance pedalled is more than 40,000 kilometres, which is greater than the circumference of the Earth.
High usage means high maintenance. This is where dead bikes come to be brought back to life. More than 60 bikes are repaired at this workshop each day.
ANTHONIN DARBON (Translation): You wanted to know what was the biggest problem we had with our Velo’v, it is the wheels. A bike can be returned to us in this sorry state.
Mobile repair teams are directed by text messages to individual bays across the city to pick up bikes for repair.
MAN (Translation): Personally, when I see bikes in that state, I feel sad, because these bikes are for everybody and to see the way they’ve been mishandled makes me feel a bit sad. It’s the other users who suffer.
City councillor Gilles Vesco is also a keen advocate and user of the system. He says the program has exceeded all expectations but the council has worked hard on creating the conditions for it to succeed.
GILLES VESCO: We doubled the number of the stations to put the bike really at the disposal of the public - at almost every corner of the city. So,you know, that's push-and-pull strategy. We push the product to the people and then we create bike tracks and bike lanes. And we created 30km/h zones for districts in the core city centre of Lyon. 30km/h zones, so when you lower the speed you improve cohabitation.
And for the outdoor advertising company that is behind it all, Lyon is just the beginning. The Belgian capital, Brussels, has already signed up for a similar deal and bids are currently being considered for Paris.
JACQUES LE GARS: The Lyon phenomenon really brought a lot of big cities visiting Lyon just to understand what was happening there. Most of the big cities in the world, in Europe and in the United States, are very, very interested in this project. So it will be a matter of time but presumably in five years time it will be quite common to have that kind of program in most of the major cities throughout the world.
GILLES VESCO: So you only need to press the brakes and the base frees the bike and then you can go. OK, bye-bye. See you later.
MAN1 (Translation): For instance, here, in Lyon, you do not need to have a bike, you can go anywhere and get a bike. You do not have to worry about bike maintenance, you hire one and return it.
DR SIMON CHAPMAN, PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH, SYDNEY UNIVERSITY: It is just fabulous. Every now and then you will come down and there will be an empty lot, they have all gone. Occasionally you will come down and there will be broken ones there, which is a little frustrating, but the frustration usually only lasts about five minutes, until someone brings another one back.
And the city council is claiming that its public bicycle scheme, called Velo'v, is doing more than getting people moving. It is also led to a reduction in car traffic.
GILLES VESCO, LYON COUNCIL: Already, in 2005, the car traffic growth has stopped and now we are scratching, little by little, 10% of the car traffic, thanks to Velo'v. That is a great achievement.
The idea of public bikes dates back to the '60s in the European cities of Amsterdam and Copenhagen and has since popped up elsewhere, but with limited success as too many bikes went missing.
JACQUES LE GARS, JC DECAUX, MANAGER NEW TECHNOLOGIES: If you want to use a bicycle, you just touch here, then you key in your PIN number. This is a simulation. Then the system is proposing a bicycle so you select your bicycle and that is it. I selected bike number one, so then I have a couple of seconds to activate bike selection. And that’s it.
Jacques Le Gars helped design the system. He says that as each user is identified through their PIN number, there is a strong incentive to return the bikes in good condition.
JACQUES LE GARS: With this agreement with the banks, if the bike is not properly given back or if it is damaged, we have the possibility to take the deposit. So we have that agreement with the bank that in case of problem, the deposit issue is solved.
REPORTER: How much is the deposit?
JACQUES LE GARS: €150.
REPORTER: It would not cover the cost of the bike.
JACQUES LE GARS: No. It is just a dissuasion issue really. But it works very well.
A pre-paid card, which costs less than a couple of dollars, allows free rental for the first half-hour. After that, it costs about a dollar an hour. Almost 90% of all journeys are less than 30 minutes, so it is basically a free ride.
STUDENT: I think it is very, very good. I bought a card for a longer time, which a lasts one year, for €10, and it is very good, especially for students because we don't have a lot of money.
And this is how the system is tracked. Each bike has an on-board computer.
ANTHONIN DARBON, JC DECAUX, VP CYCOLCITY (Translation): Here you insert a microchip card, which is the bike’s ‘Medicare card’ and ID card. Hire details are encoded on this card. When the bike is returned, the card can show us if there are any problems. For instance, it can tell us if the lights don’t work properly or if there is a problem with the brakes. When the bikes are returned, it is this gentleman’s job to make sure that the card works properlyand all the bike’s parts are in good order.
There are now more than 2,500 bikes currently in use, with plans to increase that number to 4,000 by next year. Across the city centre, bike bays are positioned within 100m of each other. Visiting Australian public health specialist Professor Simon Chapman signed up when he arrived in Lyon. He says the rewards for individuals and the community as a whole are even greater than what is immediately apparent.
DR SIMON CHAPMAN: Obviously I am getting more exercise than I would otherwise get, I'm seeing parts of the town - so my mental health is improving - I might not have ever seen before. There is a certain conviviality amongst Velo'v riders as well. We sort of give each other a bit of a nod as we go past. It is a bit of a communal thing.
The scheme came about as part of a commercial deal with an outdoor advertising company. For the right to display their billboards across the city, JC Decaux now runs the bike scheme it created.
JACQUES LE GARS: As in any tender, it is a full package. So in that package there were several dimensions. We had to offer, of course, bus shelters. We had to offer some other, companion products to bus shelters. We had to offer 2,000 bicycles, 200 bike stations, a server and all the maintenance for a long-term duration. And we hoped, of course, if our calculations are correct that the advertising revenues were going to be at the same level and the expenses linked to that.
One year on, the Lyon city council is basking in the scheme's success. They get a well-run public bike scheme for nothing and it has been a clear vote winner. For the advertising company that pays for and runs the scheme, they get exclusive access to public billboards across the city. Every day in Lyon, bikers make an average of 25,000 trips throughout the city. The collective distance pedalled is more than 40,000 kilometres, which is greater than the circumference of the Earth.
High usage means high maintenance. This is where dead bikes come to be brought back to life. More than 60 bikes are repaired at this workshop each day.
ANTHONIN DARBON (Translation): You wanted to know what was the biggest problem we had with our Velo’v, it is the wheels. A bike can be returned to us in this sorry state.
Mobile repair teams are directed by text messages to individual bays across the city to pick up bikes for repair.
MAN (Translation): Personally, when I see bikes in that state, I feel sad, because these bikes are for everybody and to see the way they’ve been mishandled makes me feel a bit sad. It’s the other users who suffer.
City councillor Gilles Vesco is also a keen advocate and user of the system. He says the program has exceeded all expectations but the council has worked hard on creating the conditions for it to succeed.
GILLES VESCO: We doubled the number of the stations to put the bike really at the disposal of the public - at almost every corner of the city. So,you know, that's push-and-pull strategy. We push the product to the people and then we create bike tracks and bike lanes. And we created 30km/h zones for districts in the core city centre of Lyon. 30km/h zones, so when you lower the speed you improve cohabitation.
And for the outdoor advertising company that is behind it all, Lyon is just the beginning. The Belgian capital, Brussels, has already signed up for a similar deal and bids are currently being considered for Paris.
JACQUES LE GARS: The Lyon phenomenon really brought a lot of big cities visiting Lyon just to understand what was happening there. Most of the big cities in the world, in Europe and in the United States, are very, very interested in this project. So it will be a matter of time but presumably in five years time it will be quite common to have that kind of program in most of the major cities throughout the world.
GILLES VESCO: So you only need to press the brakes and the base frees the bike and then you can go. OK, bye-bye. See you later.