Velib a success

The Velib' — short for "free bike" — program launched in Paris in July has been a runaway success for Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, enabling thousands of Parisians and visitors to pedal to work, shops and sights.

Similar systems exist in other European countries, as city administrations struggle to ease both traffic gridlock and air pollution, but the French capital has the most ambitious program.

Some 616,000 users have signed up to be able to pick up (and drop off) bikes at more than 750 points in Paris for daily subscriptions of 1 euro.

About 10,000 bikes are already in place, and Velib' is to double in size by the end of the year with around 20,000 of the sturdy, gray-green bikes and 1,450 pick-up points.

The only drawback to have emerged so far is that some users prefer to ride the bikes only on easy downhill routes, using public transport or cabs on their way back, so that in some parts of the city, teams of attendants have been pressed into service the push the bikes back up the hills!