When Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe pledged to cut car traffic in the City of Lights by 40% by 2020 (and subsequently car-based emissions, accidents, etc.) he wasn't fooling around. This past Sunday marked the start of Velib, a cheap bike rental program that has 10,000 bikes around Paris (to be up to 20,000 by the end of the year), with 13,000 people already owning annual memberships.

The program is financed by an advertising company, which finances and runs the program in exchange for exclusive access to the city's billboards.

This seems like a way better deal than the whole Street Furniture debacle here in Toronto. It would've been creative of the politicians to add the continued funding of Bikeshare to that deal.

Here's some news articles about the new Paris enlightenment:

Paris peddles bike service to curb traffic jams, pollution (CBC)

"In the morning, you can go to work in the tram and come home by bike; it depends on the weather, it depends on your mood and on your friends," said Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe Sunday. Delanoe aims to cut car traffic in the city by 40 per cent by 2020.

A French Revolution: This One On Two Wheels, No Guillotine (Streetsblog)

The key, Mr. Aidenbaum said, is to make it easy. "What this initiative does is to take away some of the inconveniences of owning a bike in Paris," he said, "the lack of storage space in Paris buildings, the issue of theft and the hassle of maintenance." First indications are positive. Even before the docking stations opened, 13,000 people had bought annual subscriptions online. On Sunday, some docking stations were so popular that they temporarily ran out of bikes.

A New French Revolution’s Creed: Let Them Ride Bikes (New York Times)

About a dozen sweaty people pedaled bicycles up the Champs-Élysées on Sunday toward the Arc de Triomphe, as onlookers cheered. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Alastair Miller/Bloomberg News Two tourists rented bicycles Sunday at City Hall. These were not the leading riders of the Tour de France racing toward the finish line, but American tourists testing this city’s new communal bike program.

Bicycles built for vous (Globe & Mail)

Parisians awoke yesterday to find more than 10,000 sturdy bicycles available for their use at 750 locations around the city. It cost next to nothing to take one for a spin. A swipe of a credit card for the deposit, and a 22-kilogram, pearly-grey bike, complete with basket and chain lock, was ready to ride.

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