Thanks for The Bike Show podcast of 25/2/08 for highlighting this Paris scheme to me. The Paris Vélib Service (Vélib is short for “Velo Liberte” or “Bike Freedom”) is a pick up and drop off bike scheme. Launched in July 2007 it will shortly grow to 20,600 bicycles available in 1,451 stations. It is the largest bicycle rental project in the world.
There’s a whole blog dedicated to it here. This blog, written by Evan Bench, is the source of this picture. Click on the picture to view an annotated version of the photo highlighting the key characteristics of the system. There are lots more photos of the scheme in this Flickr Slideshow. This slideshow also includes pictures of the Oybike (London) and Lyon schemes mentioned in the podcast.
Will it work in London or other UK towns and cities?
Here are the plans for London courtesy of bikeforall.net.