Paris to install 20,000 "free" bikes

On July 15, the day after Bastille Day, Parisians will wake up to discover thousands of low-cost rental bikes at hundreds of high-tech bicycle stations scattered throughout the city, an ambitious program to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance the city’s image as a greener, quieter, more relaxed place.

By the end of the year, organizers and city officials say, there should be 20,600 bikes at 1,450 stations — or about one station every 250 yards across the entire city.

Based on experience elsewhere — particularly in Lyon, France’s third-largest city, which launched a similar system two years ago — regular users of the bikes will ride them almost for free.

“It has completely transformed the landscape of Lyon — everywhere you see people on the bikes,” said Jean-Louis Touraine, the city’s deputy mayor.

The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanok, has the same aim, said his aide, Jean-Luc Dumesnil: “We think it could change Paris’ image — make it quieter, less polluted, with a nicer atmosphere, a better way of life.”

But there is a practical side, too, Dumesnil said. A recent study analyzed different trips in the city “with a car, bike, taxi and walking, and the bikes were always the fastest.”