Velib in Paris

Riding Bikes in Paris: A whole new adventure that I couldn't have imagined. The Parisians have this great program called Velib-Velo is bike and who knows where ib comes from. So here's how it works. All around Paris and her suburbs (1800 locations) are bike stands with approximately 40-70 bikes per stand. You buy a pass ( 8 euros per week), get a secret code, and voila! Access 24 hours, 7 days a week to a bike. Sounds good, right? Well there are a few amusing complications. You can only take each bike for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes you must return the bike to a bike stand--anywhere. But, as we found today, not all bike stands are created equal-meaning some have more demand than others. Translated into real life experience, this means that you may return your bike to a bike stand and there is not an open space. No worries: Velib provides a bonus 15 minutes and flashing locations of empty bike racks. All good and well when you know which direction you are facing. Bike parking spaces have a higher premium than parking spaces at the mall during Christmas. All in all, it eventually works out. Dad graciously allowed me to take the one free space close to home and ventured into the Latin Quarter for a free bike space.

And...we just learned that at any time, we can web access each bike location and find out the available bikes and empty spaces--keep in mind the empty spaces are now as important as the actual bike availability. Our never-empty bike rack down the stairs and around the corner boasted 8 free spaces at the moment. Always the scientist, Dad put on his shoes and ran down to check if Velib on-line is current and accurate. 

Pause.

He just returned, "C'est Vrai!" (It's true!) he calls out. And he's currently giving me the update of the locations nearest us, "3 up in the Rue de Rivoli. Ooohhh," he says, "19 free spots at the one that's in the middle of the island just over from us. And...."

For this we came to Paris! 

"Now there's 5 bikes available and 11 spots--someone just took three more."