It sounds like the Velib self-service bike program is so popular in Paris that people are just loving those bikes to death.
Of the 20,000 bicycles set out when the program launched less than two years ago, 7,800 have disappeared and 11,600 have been damaged and vandalized.
A TimesOnline story says some of the damage is outright malacious. Other damage is the result of wild stunts that users perform.
Stunts
In the YouTube video above, the bikes are definitely pushed to their limits, although the filmmaker assures us, “No Velib used in this video was maltreated.”
In the video, the cyclists use the bikes for riding down steps and doing stunts at bike parks.
The bike rental program is operated by outdoor advertising firm JCDecaux, which gets free space for billboards. Marketing director Albert Asseraf is quoted:
“We underestimated the degree of damage they would suffer.”
Theft
Although they are to be locked in place when returned to the 1,200 docking stations around the city, many users don't hook them up property and the bikes are stolen. Amazingly the bikes have turned up in Eastern Europe and Africa.
Because of the level of damage, the city of Paris has agreed to help in the replacement of stolen or unusable bicycles.
In spite of the problems, Paris and JCDeaux are planning to expand the program to the suburbs with 3,300 bicycles at 300 new stations.
The Bike-Sharing blog reports that some 90 cities around the world have bike sharing programs. The first in the US was SmartBikeDC. Portland, San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Philadelphia all planning self-service bike share programs this year.
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