Vélib’ is a large-scale public bicycle sharing system in Paris. The name Vélib’ is a portmanteau of the French words vélo (English: bicycle) and liberté (freedom). Launched on 15 July 2007, the system has expanded to encompass around 20,000 bicycles and 1,202 bicycle stations, located across Paris and in some surrounding municipalities, with an estimated ridership of 110,000 people per day in average.
Since December 2011, Vélib’ has been complemented by Autolib’, an electric car sharing scheme operating on similar principles. Vélib’ is operated as a concession by the French advertising corporation JCDecaux. As of 2013, Vélib’ is the world’s third-largest bikesharing program, after the 90,000-bicycle system in Wuhan, and the 61,000-bicycle system in Hangzhou, both in China.
Each Vélib’ station is equipped with an automatic rental terminal and has stands for dozens of bicycles. Maps showing the locations of the city’s Vélib’ stations are available at all kiosks.
In order to use the system, users need to take out a subscription, which allows the subscriber an unlimited number of rentals. Subscriptions can be purchased at €1.70 per day, €8/week, €29/year (Vélib’ Classique), or €39/year (Vélib’ Passion). With a subscription, bike rental is free for the first half hour of every individual trip; an unlimited number of such free trips can be made per day. A trip that lasts longer than 30 minutes incurs a charge of €1 to €4 for each subsequent 30‑minute period. The increasing price scale is intended to keep the bikes in circulation. A Vélib’ Passion subscription allows the user to have the first 45 minutes free on each trip, its price is reduced to €29 for users aged under 27, and to €19 for students receiving a scholarship.
If a user arrives with a rented bicycle at a station without open spots, the terminal grants another fifteen minutes of free rental time. The rental terminals also display information about neighbouring Vélib’ stations, including location, number of available bicycles and open stands. A fleet of 23 bicycle-transporting vehicles are used 24/7 to redistribute bicycles between empty and full stations.
