The four, or rather three providers of sharing bikes include city owned Vélib and international sharing giants Lime, TIER and Dott, however the latter two joined forces at the beginning of this year. All of these anticipated a huge uplift in e-bike usage in Paris before the games. How do they fare in these tough conditions, as the weather in Paris changed from torrential rainfall at the Opening Ceremony to hot temperatures of up to 38 degrees centigrade in the past week.
Advantage: Infrastructure
In Paris ten thousand bicycle bike rack spaces were added to existing ones and they can be used by sharing providers and also for your private bike. These spaces are conveniently located next to and around the Olympic venues. After the Games, these racks will be moved to sports centers, schools and municipal facilities around the capital. How are the service providers really coping with such increased traffic demand? Here is what I experienced in the first week of the Olympic Games right here in Paris myself:
American sharing company Lime as one of the providers acted quickly and deployed an additional 5,000 e-bikes in Paris thus increasing its available fleet from 10,000 to 15,000 vehicles. Speaking of availability, the company also recruited 25 percent more mechanics and added more staff to swiftly react on varying distribution demand of its two-wheelers across the 20 arrondissements. Availability is really key, it is the secret behind a sharing provider’s success in any city and that is true in particular for these Olympic games. Competition is not sleeping too: TIER-Dott also increased its fleet to 15,000 electric bikes and upped its staff to cater for an increased demand. And the city of Paris is also busy, as three thousand additional Vélib bikes were put into service. The Vélib sharing bicycle network offers now more than 21,000 bicycles for hire, of which almost 40 percent are reported to be electric. All of these mobility provider have one mission: Make the Games in Paris the most sustainable and mobility friendly games ever.
Let me explain how this all is an important factor for the visitors as the story seems to repeat itself every day here this summer: when we exited the steaming Beachvolleyball Stadium at the Tour Eiffel last night together with a few thousand other happy and hyped visitors, the main two mobility offerings were the Parisian Métro and the sharing bikes as taxi and UBER services couldn’t reach the heavily sealed off and secured compound. The spectators were getting a little nervous with a thunderstorm closing in, a regular here in Paris this summer.
The vast majority of available sharing bikes were Lime bikes, however it wasn’t just purely the availability of these vehicles. In the squares and roundabouts on the nearby opposing side of the river Seine, I spotted several trailers with dozens of Lime bikes on them quickly transported from there into the sealed off zones (for cars) by young Parisians, making them available for the visitors within no time after the finish of the previous rides. Seamless and with a constant ‘refill’, the Lime service really worked well that night and for sure helped hundreds of bike riders reach their destinations in dry condition.
Mobility Pricing - the Parisians are cashing in
That said, everything is more expensive in Paris this summer. The price for a Métro ticket has gone up to €4 per ride, which is a rise of 100 percent. Whereas Lime moved up his pricing too, TIER-Dott offers a set of ride passes, that aim to attract new riders to their service. Two rides within 24 hours for a price of €3.99 - this is the way forward to gain new friends of shared mobility. And there are thousands of them here in Paris, let me assure you.
However the integration of transportation tickets into one Olympic transportation App makes your life easy when you travel on the tube or train. All Parisian venues can be reached with this App, once you have added the ticket on your phoine you even get recommendations how to reach the venue from wherever you are. Thousands of support staff help us foreigners, you can also buy your ticket from these if you want to avoid queues at the ticket machines. Safety is also catered for, hundreds of security staff, police and military provide a sense of security to all. And these costs need to be covered here in Paris and in all other cities like Lille or Marseille, where parts of the Games are hosted. So you might argue that these services are covered by higher mobility pricing too.
Photos courtesy of Michael Brecht.
