Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Velib!-Bicycle Month, Part Deux.


Paris is the envy of the bicycling world with its very successful bike share program, Velib'. The program is self service and allows the user to pick up a bike at any "service point" and drop it off anywhere else. The service points (stations) are available 24 hours/7 days a week and are spaced 300 meters apart. The purple icons represent stations. Each station has about 20 bike stands and a card reader to allow the user to access the bikes.

The maps illustrate how well the stations cover the city. Are all maps of Paris are required to show pictograms of the monuments?




This detailed section shows that even the edges of the city are well covered.




I have not been to Paris since they implemented this program but it looks like fun and its success has spawned imitations throughout Europe. Even some US cities are considering the program.
I like these zoomed way out google map views from their station finder. They illustrate the density and reach of the program.





La ville est plus belle a velo!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Please, more of these types of systems in the US. I would love it if I were able to go on vacation and check-out a bike in the city I'm visiting...